


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



@^itt._[-%^ri0|t Tfxu 

Shelf. J2.-1-* 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE NEW JAMAICA 



DESCRIBING THE ISLAND, EXPLAINING ITS CONDITIONS 
OF LIFE AND GROWTH AND DISCUSSING ITS MER- 
CANTILE RELATIONS AND POTENTIAL IM- 
PORTANCE: ADDING SOMEWHAT IN 
RELATION TO THOSE MATTERS 
WHICH DIRECTL Y INTEREST 
THE TOURIST AND THE 
HEALTH SEEKER. 



EDGAR MAYHEW BACON 

AND 

EUGENE MURRAY AARON, PH.D. 



ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHORS AFTER ORIGINAL SKETCHES AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
TAKEN BY DR. JAS. JOHNSTONE AND OTHERS. ' 



it\ 



\ 



NEW YORK 
WALBRIDGE & CO. , ) 



KINGSTON 
ASTON W. GARDNER & CO. 

MDCCCXC 



Copyright, 1890, by 
EDGAR M. BACON 



J <Z~ 






THE MACKENZIE PRESS 

WALBRIDGE 4. CO. ' 
17-23 VANDEWATER ST. 
NEW YORK 



/ 



, 



TO 
LADY BLAKE 

WE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATE THIS WORK ; KNOWING THAT 

EVERY JAMAICAN WILL ENVY US OUR 

OPPORTUNITY. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, ..... 

Introduction, , 

History of Jamaica, .... 

Later Days, . 

Climate, . . . 

Commercial Life and Relations, 

The Industrial Exhibition, 

A City Under the Sun, 

Port Royal, ..... 

Along the Railway, 

Santiago de la Vega, .... 

Half-way Tree and Constant Spring, . 

Stony Hill and Castleton, 

In the Hills, . 

An Early Start, ..... 

On the Windward Road, . 

Bath and Manchioneal, 

In Portland — Port Antonio, 

The District of St. George, . 

From Buff Bay to the Roaring River, 

St. Ann's Bay, ..... 

Falmouth and Vicinage, 

Montego Bay, . . ... 

In Hanover and Westmoreland, 

St. Elizaeeth — The Santa Cruz Mountains, 

The Home Stretch, .... 

Transportation and "Communication, 

Postal and Telegraph Facilities, 

Public Works, . . . . 

Government Revenue and the Custom House, 

Exchange, Coins, etc., .... 

Conclusion, ..... 



PAGE 

vii 
ix 

i 

25 
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42 

47 
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66 

73 
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93 
101 

107 

125 
129 
140 
146 
160 
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190 
193 
197 
202 
207 
212 
219 

226 
2 28 
230 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece. Rio Cobre from Railway Bridge. 

Ruins on Sugar Estate: Moonlight, 

Remains of Spanish Governor's House, 

Cage Used for Executing Slaves, 

Old Sugar Mill, Constant Spring, 

Rock Fort, 

View from Kingston, 

Kingston Harbor, 

Kingston, 

Bell of Old Church, Port Royal, 

Port Royal, . 

Church at Port Royal, 

Railway Tunnel, 

Aqueduct on Sugar Estate, . 

Railway Bridge, 

Old House at Ewarton, 

Tunnel at Bog Walk, 

Spanish Town Cathedral, 

Canal, Rio Cobre, . 

The Rio Cobre, . 

Negro Head Dress, 

Governor Blake and Family, 

On the Road, Market Day, 

Half-way Tree Church, 

Banana Plant, 

Mona Vale from Stony Hill, 

Pleasant, 

In the Hills, 

Parasites, 

Peasant Women, 

Jacob's Ladder, 

Bowden, Port Morant, . 

Transporting Rum and Sugar, 

Palms at Bath Garden, 

Bath, St. Thomas ye East, . 

Coco AN UTS, 

Golden Vale, 

Fish Done at Spring Garden, . 

Women at Ford, 

Spanish Bridge, Mammee River, 

Buildings on Sugar Estate, 

St. Ann's Bay, 

Mr. Wessel's House, 

Montego Bay, 

Santa Cruz Mountains, 



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8 

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72 

73 
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93 

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IJ 5 
124 
130 
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J 54 
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194 
20.5 



PREFACE. 



IN offering this book to the public the authors wish 
to acknowledge the many courtesies they have re- 
ceived from Jamaicans, and the efficient aid which has 
been given them in the labor of gathering material for 
it. 

If the accomplished work falls short of the expec- 
tations of those who have so kindly encouraged its 
production, we can but say that from a mass of mate- 
rial we have tried to select that which will be of most 
value and interest to the reader ; leaving much unap- 
propriated, not because the treasure is small, but 
because our vehicle is inadequate to carry it all. 

We have tried especially to give a fair, comprehen- 
sive, though condensed, account of Jamaica as it is; 
its present life, its means of communication and 
travel, its growing commercial outlook and its intrinsic 
wealth. 

As its history has been the subject of a cumulative 
literature, treating of the events of nearly four hun- 
dred years of unusual interest, it will be seen that any 
attempt to condense such a mass of material to the 
limit of two or three chapters must be prefaced with 
apology and received with indulgence. But as a 
knowledge of the more prominent facts and conditions 



viii Preface. 

of the older time are necessary to a clear understanding 
of the present life and promise of a new Jamaica, we 
can but assure our readers that this epitome has been 
as honestly and fairly prepared as possible. 

Among the authorities consulted, the most promi- 
nent are Bryan Edwards' " History of the West 
Indies ; " Chas. Leslie's " New Account of Jamaica ; " 
John Esquemeling's " History of the Buccaneers;" 
Bridge's " Annals of Jamaica ; " Washington Irving's 
" Life of Columbus ; " Gardners " History of Ja- 
maica ; " Montgomery Martin's " History of the Brit- 
ish Colonies ; " Rector of Port Royal's " Narrative ; " 
several recent essays and magazine papers, and the 
54 Hand-book of Jamaica." Besides these, we had 
access to the records and reports of the govern- 
ment printing office, kindly placed at our disposal ; 
and various pamphlets, clippings and other material, 
furnished by. private parties, whose names we would 
be glad to publish with our acknowledgment, did 
courtesy permit. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The approach to Jamaica, whether made by day or 
night/cannot fail to interest and charm the traveller. 
He must indeed be a blase wanderer who can view the 
unfolding beauty of its mountains, the arboreal display 
of its coasts and the brighter green of its cultivations 
with indifference. Whether he first lands in the cen- 
tral regions of the north side, following the example 
of the Genoese, and enjoys the garden like beauty of 
St. Ann's ; or falls among the bananas of Port An- 
tonio ; or seeks the south side and all its present and 
historic meaning, he is sure to find that fulfilment 
keeps pace with expectation. 

Beyond the light-houses of Morant, and the foot- 
hills of St. Thomas ye East, rise the cloudy blue sum- 
mits of the Eastern Mountains, the highest of them 
7,350 feet above the sea level. There are the cocoa- 
nuts in long ranks upon the palisadoes, and among a 
number of islets and capes the vessel is piloted past 
the sheltering forts, into a bay that has been enriched 
with a thousand memories. 

Jamaica lies between if 42' and 18 31' North 
Latitude. Its total length is 144 miles and its great- 
est width 49 miles. It is politically divided into three 
counties — Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey, which are 
further subdivided into fourteen parishes. 



X Introduction. 

There are over thirty large bays and harbors, the 
finest being Kingston, Port Antonio, St. Ann's Bay, 
Montego Bay, Savana la Mar, Lucea and Port Mo- 
rant. 

The present government of the island, created by an 
order in council by her Majesty Queen Victoria, 
dated May 19, 1884, consists of a governor, appointed 
by the crown, and a council, part chosen by the peo- 
ple and part serving by virtue of official position. 
There is, first, the Privy Council, consisting of the 
Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Director 
of Public Works and two others. 

The Legislative Council, of which the governor is 
president, consists of the senior military officer in 
command of troops on the island, the Colonial Secre- 
tary, Director of Public Works, Attorney General, 
Medical Superintendent, Inspector of Schools, Collec- 
tor General and eight elected members. 

The. civil establishment includes all officers and 
clerks in the department, enumerated above. The 
Judicial department consists of the Supreme Court, 
Administrator General, Island Record orifice, Vice 
Admiralty Court, Kingston Circuit Court and resident 
magistrates court. 

Between 1866 to 1885 the governor annually 
appointed municipal and road boards as well as 
church wardens. But since the latter date a single 
parochial board for each parish has been instituted 
whose members, thirteen to eighteen in number, are 
elected for this office, with the exception of the person 
representing the electoral district in the council, and 



Introduction. xi 

the custos of the parish, who presides. These 
parochial boards manage all local affairs. The 
Church of England in Jamaica was disestablished in 
[870. 

The corporate name of the Board of Kingston is 
the " Mayor and Council of Kingston." 

The present governor of Jamaica is Sir Henry 
Arthur Blake, K. C. M. G. 




MIDDLESEX 

SURflEY 

CORNWALL 

Total - 



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-'- - r S % f$>F^3&£rli It* 2 *~i 4. 



£?£&& odfa, 










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% \\jMv 




MIDDLESEX 
SURREY 
CORNWALL 
Total - 


1920 
767y» 
150b' 




1 ■ *x> \ x 




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77' 









^Il&ICA 



HISTORY OF JAMAICA. 




The story of Jamaica's 
discovery by Columbus 
in 1494 is well known. 
It was on the great nav- 
igator's second voyage of 
discovery that he saw 
"the blue summits of a 
vast and lofty island at a 
ereat distance," which 
" began to rise like clouds above the horizon." Two 
days later, the hostility of the natives having been 
allayed, a landing was effected at a place which is 
called on the old maps Oracabessa. Its site is near 
the town of Port Maria, on a bay which the discoverer 
named Santa Gloria, in pious recognition of the beauty 
of the surrounding country. 

Not until nine years later did the actual Spanish 
colonization of the island commence. When Colum- 
bus on a subsequent voyage, with caravels almost 
totally wrecked by the violence of an extraordinary 
tempest, was driven to seek a harbor, he put into the 
bay now known as Dry Harbor, which he called 
Puerto Bueno. That was on the 23d of June, 1503. 
Excepting the gentle manliness of Columbus' own 



2 History of Jamaica, 

character there is little that is pleasant to chronicle of 
the Spanish rule. 

The earlier records of Jamaica are a chapter of 
more or less prosperous wickedness, seldom equalled in 
the world's story. The Spaniards, having done to 
death in various ways above sixty thousand of the 
aborigines, settled themselves down to the acquisition 
of wealth in their city of St. Jago, of which Columbus 
was created Duke. They had founded Melilla first, 
drifted thence to Savilla, abandoned Savilla to build 
Oristan, and this for St. Jago de la Vega — now Span- 
ish Town. 

The accounts of the Spanish occupancy having been 
written generally by Englishmen, are hardly matter to 
swear by. According to these narratives their lives 
were a compound of cruelty and indolence. If this 
was the case the English conquest in the time of 
Cromwell brought little material change to the land, 
except that the English drove a more flourishing trade 
with the outside world, and made their chief city at 
once a nest of vice and a centre of rude luxury. 

In 1590 Sir Anthony Shirley, an Englishman, 
attacked the island and burned St. Jago, the capital, 
but did not choose to follow up his conquest. Upon 
the retirement of the English the Spaniards repaired 
Spanish Town, and were then unmolested by foreign 
foe till 1635. That year Colonel Jackson sailed with 
a small fleet to the Windward Islands and thence to 
Jamaica, where, with five hundred men, he attacked a 
garrison of two thousand Spaniards at Passage Fort, 
and after a hot fight, in which seven hundred Spaniards 



History of Jamaica. 3 

are said to have been killed, utterly routed the set- 
tlers. 

Having visited Spanish Town and extorted ransom, 
Jackson followed Shirley's example and retired. But 
a few years later Jamaica was again taken. "The 
Crafty Mazerine," — to quote Charles Leslie's honest 
Royalist Chronicle, — " having engaged Cromwell to 
join with France and turn his arms against Spain, 
politickly contrived an expedition to the West Indies." 
A fine fleet was fitted, aboard of which were " two 
thousand old cavaliers and as many of Oliver's army." 
The commanders were Colonel Venables and Admiral 
Penn, the father of William Penn, who got one thou- 
sand three hundred more adventurers at Barbadoes and 
the Windward Islands. With such an army, good 
ships and able officers, they attacked St. Jago, after an 
unsuccessful expedition against Hispaniola. In May, 
1655, St. Jago capitulated to this force, its forts and 
defences proving all inadequate against the munitions 
of the invaders. But while parleying, and amusing the 
English with fair speeches and presents, the Spaniards 
contrived to remove much of their treasure from St. 
Jago, and the same is supposed by treasure seekers and 
other romantic people to be hid to this day in wells 
and other safe places in the neighborhood. 

After the English had gained the city they were 
afraid of the foe, who still retained possession of the 
country and greatly harassed them by sudden sorties 
and skirmishes. At length, however, the conquest was 
complete. The last Spanish governor fled to Cuba, 
from a point on the north side of Jamaica, still known 



4 History of Jamaica. 

as Runaway Bay. From this time British rule was 
permanently established. 

When Admiral Penn and Colonel Venables returned 
to England they left in charge of the colony Colonel 




D'Oyley, whose command included nearly three 
thousand men and twenty war vessels. D'Oyley was 
a brave and excellent leader. It was through him 
that the last remnant of the Spaniards were driven 



History of Jamaica, 5 

from the island. But they left behind them a number 
of slaves, probably of mixed Carib and African blood, 
who, being fierce and warlike, took to the mountain 
fastnesses and became bandits, preying upon the fields 
and endangering the persons of the new settlers. 
D'Oyley succeeded in subduing them for a time, but 
he left a few individuals, who in later years grew to be 
powerful and greatly harassed the colony. Their part 
in Jamaican history has been sufficiently prominent to 
warrant this account of their origin. A remnant of 
them is still left, peacefully enjoying the privileges 
and immunities which they formerly wrested from 
the government. They are known as the Ma- 
roons. 

Cromwell fitted a second squadron and sent Major 
Sedjwick to relieve Colonel D'Oyley. Before Sedj- 
wick's arrival D'Oyley suppressed a mutiny among his 
men, shooting the ringleaders. 

The new governor lived but a few days after his 
arrival, and the popular cavalier again resumed the 
direction of affairs. 

Cromwell then appointed Colonel Brayne, of Scot- 
land, with orders to colonize one thousand round- 
heads from Port Patrick to balance the royalists of 
D'Oyley's party. But Colonel Brayne followed Sedj- 
wick, and for a third time D'Oyley ruled. He was a 
wise and energetic leader, governing with forethought 
and prudence. Having been twice supplanted by 
Cromwell, because he was a Royalist, he was finally re- 
moved by Charles II. upon his accession to the throne 
to make place for the royal favorite, Lord Windsor ; 



6 History of Jamaica. 

leaving so good a reputation, however, that he 
was long looked upon as the best of the gover- 
nors. 

The new governor did little, but, to quote Chas. 
Leslie's venerable history, " In my Lord Windsor's 
government the Island was in a very flourishing condi- 
tion, for by this time the buccaneers had begun their 
trade of pyrating and made money plentiful" About 
this time, too, there were many wealthy men who 
came from other islands to settle in Jamaica. Among 
these was Sir Thos. Moddiford, afterwards governor. 
Sir Chas. Lyttleton followed Windsor, the latter being 
removed finally, at the earnest protest of the Span- 
iards, who complained bitterly of the part he took in 
protecting the pirates. Under Lyttleton the first 
concessions were made to the Maroons, grants of land 
and magisterial power being given to Juan de Bolas, 
their leader. The governor also issued writs for the 
first general assembly held upon the island. Members 
were returned from twelve districts and met at Santi- 
ago de la Vega (now Spanish Town), where they in- 
dulged in great conviviality, if we may trust the older 
histories. 

This first assembly was dissolved by Deputy Gov. 
Sir Edward Morgan. Following him came Moddiford, 
whose rule, says one of the chronicles, " brought the 
island to its greatest perfection." The population was 
then 17,298 inhabitants. Money was plenty, immigra- 
tion increased and affairs were generally in a prosper- 
ous condition. Writs were issued for a new council, 
which proved to be rather combative in its temper 



History of Jamaica* *j 

than deliberative- One of its members murdered 
another at a state dinner. 

While the assembly were quarrelling, the governor, 
on his own responsibility, was amusing himself by 
granting commissions and letters of marque to the 
pirates who already swarmed the Spanish Main. 
These were to annoy the fleets of Spain. 

No chapter in the world's annals presents more ap- 
propriate material for modern melodrama than the 
lives of the buccaneers. 

Bartholomew, a Portuguese, was the first buccaneer 
of note and achieved some brilliant successes, but was 
soon overshadowed by others. Brafiliano, a Dutch- 
man, took some valuable prizes and greatly harassed 
the Spaniards. Lewis Scott was the first to land a 
force en Spanish territory and engage in terrestrial 
warfare, one of his acts being the sack of Campeche. 
Mansvelt took the Island of St. Catherines and wanted 
to hold it, under colonial protection, as a pirate ren- 
dezvous. He extorted a great ransom. The redoubt- 
able John Davis carried fire and sword into Nicaragua 
and St. Augustine, retiring with immense booty. 
But the greatest of all the buccaneers was Henry 
Morgan. The son of a poor Welsh farmer, sold into 
servitude in Barbadoes and serving his term of slavery 
as a laborer, he impressed upon his time a romantic 
enthusiasm for his deeds and personality. Although 
greatly admired and copied by other privateers, 
Morgan is said by his biographers to have been 
unlike them, though in what the dissimilarity con- 
sisted we of a later day may be too dull to discover. 



8 



History of Jamaica. 



By his followers were com- 
mitted cruelties unexam- 
pled ; yet he is spoken of as 
being on a moral plane far 
above such men as Mansvelt, 
with whom, by the way, he 
sailed as vice-admiral in the 
latter's successful expedition 
against St. Catherines. Mor- 
gan, upon the death of 
Mansvelt, became the great 
pirate leader. He never 
sailed without a commission, 
however, and so over his 
colossal barbarities was 
thrown the cloak of author- 
ity, and expeditions for pil- 
lage and rapine were dignified as naval encounters and 
invasions. 

In 1670, with an army of 1200 men and a numerous 
fleet, he attacked the town of Panama, then very rich ; 
was victorious over the army that was sent against 
him and secured 175 mule loads of precious metal. 
Of this plunder his crew received only two hundred 
pieces of eight each, and mutinied, whereupon this in- 
trepid leader stole away with treasure to the value of 
£25,000. 

The immense wealth at this period brought into 
Port Royal ; the thousands of freebooters whose 
money, bought with blood, was spent in crime ; the 
cargoes of merchant fleets brought to its stalls and the 




History of Jamaica. 9 

ransom of provinces paid into its coffers, made this 
city enormously wealthy. Its state was barbaric but 
splendid ; no form of vice was wanting, no indul- 
gence too extravagant for its lawless population. 

One of the curious contradictions of history oc- 
curred about here. Sir Thos. Moddiford was relieved, 
and sailed for England as a prisoner, to answer for the 
offence of exceeding his authority in commissioning 
Morgan. About the same time Morgan was knighted 
for his victory at Panama and was thereafter known as 
Sir Henry Morgan, the wealthy planter, the foe of the 
pirates and the friend to law and order. 

Six years later Morgan, as Lieutenant-Governor, 
assumed control of Jamaica's affairs and was exceed- 
ingly popular. 

Over a thousand Surinamese Dutchmen immigrated 
to the island in 1672. They were of industrious 
habits, and added to the colony's prosperity. A general 
awakening to industry resulted in the first shipment of 
sugar to England, the beginning of_ a trade which was 
for years the fruitful source of wealth to the colony, 
and which, a century later, brought Jamaica to the 
zenith of her prosperity. 

The final crushing of the pirates and the unpopu- 
larity consequent upon the financial depression which 
followed, belonged to Lord Vaughn, who recalled the 
buccaneer's commissions and hung a great many of 
those marauders, thus effectually suppressing the 
dreadful business. It was at that time that the Royal 
African Company gained their charter which gave 
them every advantage upon the high seas, so that the 



16 History of Jamaica. 

Jamaica slave trade was seriously interfered with, and 
the price of human flesh rose enormously. 

In 1678 the Earl of Carlisle summoned a new 
assembly. Both he and his successors were perpet- 
ually in hot water, standing often between the colony 
and the mother country, on questions of financial 
policy principally. 

When the Duke of Albemarle came, he established 
a claim to historic mention by bringing with him a 
great man, Sir Hans Sloane, the naturalist. The 
work of this extraordinary person, though accom- 
plished before the discovery of our modern system of 
classification in Natural History, was of immense 
benefit to science, and stands to-day a monument and 
a landmark in a history of moral degradation, intellect- 
ual barrenness, political errors and mercantile obliquity. 

The flight of James II. and the accession of William 
and Mary to the throne of England intensified for a 
time the political differences, which never were allowed 
to die. Certain acts, inimical, it was claimed, to the 
interests of Jamaica, were repealed and the constitution 
restored, which had been changed in Albemarle's time. 
To give the details of the perpetual wrangling which 
agitated Jamaica's rulers year after year would be 
neither interesting nor instructive. 

The Earl of Inchequin, who took charge in 1690 
varied the usual order of quarrel by sending the war 
ships Severn and Guernsey to retaliate upon the 
French, who had been annoying the sea-coast inhabi- 
tants of the island. These vessels took valuable 
prizes in Hispaniola. But Inchequin did not live 



History of Jamaica, it 

to enjoy the prestige which such success usually 
brings. 

We now come to one of the most memorable events 
in Jamaican annals. On the 7th of June, 1692, a great 
earthquake shook the island and almost totally 
destroyed the Metropolis. Mountains were riven, 
earth and rock fell upon the valleys, burying the 
people, hamlets were engulfed, plantations obliterated 
and rivers turned into new channels. 

The terrible retribution that overtook Port Royal in 
three or four brief minutes of time can be only com- 
pared in magnitude to the unexampled record of her 
debauchery. It was a disaster which in a moment 
transformed the richest spot on earth to the poorest. 
Even Lisbon's fate could not compare with the 
complete overthrow of the Jamaican capital. Leslie 
says: "At the Time when the Island was full of Gay 
Hopes, Wallowing in Riches and Abandoned to 
Wickedness, the most dreadful Calamity befel it that 
ever happened to a people, and which many look upon 
as a tremendous judgment of the Almighty. On the 
7th of June, 1692, one of the most violent earthquakes 
happened that perhaps w r as ever felt. It began 
between 11 and 12 o'clock at noon, shook down and 
drowned nine-tenths of Port Royal in two minutes 
time; all the Wharves at Port Royal sunk at once. 
There were soon several Fathoms of Water where the 
Streets stood ; and that one which suffered the least 
Damage was so overflowed that the Water swelled as 
high as the Upper Rooms of the Houses." Added to 
all the other horrors, the unburied dead which lay in 



12 History of Jamaica. 

heaps upon the land or floated in shoals in the harbor, 
became in a little while, under that tropic sun, horrible 
masses of putrefaction, generating a pestilence from 
which thousands of those who had survived the earth- 
quake died. 

The overthrow of Port Royal led to the establish- 
ment of the city of Kingston on the Liguanea Plain, 
upon property belonging to Colonel, afterward Sir 
William Beeston. The city was laid out by Colonel 
Christian Lilly, of the Royal Engineers. 

Shortly after these events Beeston assumed the gov- 
ernment (in 1693). It was then that the French were 
again peculiarly active and annoying. They had 
burned plantations in Jamaica, and taken away slaves 
to the value of ^"65,000. The colonial militia finally 
succeeded in defeating these invaders on the land, 
driving them back to their ships with loss ; but on the 
water the French were victorious, and the great Eng- 
lish Admiral Benbow was defeated, dying from his 
wounds in Kingston shortly afterwards. 

During several administrations the usual succession 
of legislative troubles engaged the attention of the 
governors. The Picaroons from Cuba created a diver- 
sion in the time of Sir Nicholas Lawes, by committing 
many depredations, and the embarrassment thus 
caused to agriculture was further augmented by a 
hurricane, which destroyed both lives and property. 
Yet the government could hardly leave its wrangling 
over the question of a permanent revenue bill long 
enough to take proper measures for the relief of the 
sufferers. 



History of Jamaica. 13 

Then followed a ruler whose course of conduct, 
being in marked contrast to those who had preceded 
him, demands recognition. Major-General Robert 
Hunter, learning that he was about to receive the 
appointment to Jamaica, actually took pains to inform 
himself of the condition of the country and people to 
which he was going, and so effectually presented their 
case and cause to his Majesty's ministers as to win 
certain concessions for them. The Jamaica assembly, 
feeling that the country had a friend in the new gov- 
ernor, promptly passed the much discussed bill, grant- 
ing a permanent revenue of ^"Sooo per annum to the 
crown, receiving in return the confirmation of their 
laws, for which they had been fighting. Besides this, 
Hunter's salary was increased from £5000 to ,£6000 as 
a token of gratitude for his services. 

Trouble with the Maroons, already referred to, now 
reached its height. Many skirmishes were fought, 
and the whole colony was in a state of insecurity and 
alarm. Indeed, the Maroon war lasted with greater 
or less intensity for nearly forty years, and it was not 
till Governor Trelawney's arrival that peace was con- 
cluded with these mountaineers. By grants of land 
and peculiar privileges, he succeeded in forming a 
treaty which was in all points as though concluded 
with a foreign power, instead of with a band of preda- 
tory savages in the act of rebellion. 

In 1739, tne war between England and Spain called 
out a volunteer force from Jamaica to assist against 
the South American ports. The expedition in 
which they engaged led to the surrender of the 



!4 History of Jamaica. 

Spanish American towns of Chagres and Porto 

Bello. 

During Trelawney's administration in 1744, another 
earthquake shook Port Royal, and a great hurricane 
and tidal wave swept Savanna la Mar so that the 
place, people, houses and cattle were utterly destroyed. 

Governor Knowles, in 175 1, was burned in effigy for 
some differences with the House. In 1760 a slave in- 
surrection broke out in the parish of St. Mary. Whole 
families of white planters were butchered by the in- 
surgents, and it was only after a battle during which 
four hundred of them were killed that peace was re- 
stored. The ringleaders were shot or hung in chains, 
and many of the others transported. 

In 1762, Governor Lyttleton brought news of 
another war between Spain and England. An expe- 
dition sent against Havannah was successful, and 
that city capitulated. Besides this victory, the cap- 
ture of twelve ships of the line, and a fleet of mer- 
chantmen, swelled the amount of booty to ,£2,000,000, 
and made Jamaica rich once more. 

In the time of Elletson, who succeeded Lyttleton, 
another negro outbreak occurred in Hanover and 
Westmoreland. It was stamped out, and thirty ring- 
leaders were hanged. Soon after this the political 
world was agitated over the American war for inde- 
pendence, the recognition of the United States by 
France, and the consequent war between that country 
and Great Britain. Martial law was proclaimed in 
Jamaica, and the principal ports of the island were 
fortified. Nelson, who was then commander of Fort 



History of Jamaica. 15 

Charles, volunteered in an expedition against Nica- 
ragua, and nearly lost his life. Admiral Rodney, 
Jamaica's best loved hero, won a great victory over 
the French Admiral Du Casse, in April, 1782, thereby 
saving the island from a troublesome foe, and winning 
for himself the thanks of his sovereign, and his eleva- 
tion to the peerage. Rodney's statue, by John Bacon, 
now occupies a prominent position in the public 
square at Spanish Town. 

Following these troublous times, Jamaica was 
plagued with famine, and swept by hurricanes for the 
space of several years. 

The year 1795 saw another formidable Maroon out- 
break, at the termination of which six hundred of 
these troublesome neighbors were transported to 
Nova Scotia. 

During the eighteenth century the population of 
the island had greatly increased, and as towards the 
close of the seventeenth, the great wealth brought by 
the buccaneers had given a dazzling though temporary 
and fictitious prosperity to Jamaica, so the closing 
decades of the eighteenth saw this wealth and luxury 
repeated upon the, apparently, more stable founda- 
tion of agriculture and commerce. 

In spite of legislative brawls, and the dangers 
resulting from an isolated, almost defenceless con- 
dition, the " Gem of the Antilles " was enjoying her 
age of gold at the commencement of the present 
century. 

During the eighteenth century the importation of 
human cattle from Africa reached 600,000 souls. The 



1 6 History of Jamaica. 

mortality among them must have been very great, for 
in spite of their natural tendency to increase, the close 
of the slave trade found barely half that number on 
the island. Bryan Edwards says : " It appears to me 
that the British slave trade had attained its highest 
pitch of prosperity a short time before the American 
War " (the War for Independence is referred to). The 
number of ships which sailed from England to the 
coast, engaged in the nefarious business of slave trad- 
ing in 1/71, was 196; and the total number taken to 
British colonies in that year (of which Jamaica took 
the lion's share) was 47,146. The treatment these 
poor creatures received at the hands of their masters 
was often brutal, and nearly always, to state it mildly, 
unsympathetic. This will be referred to further on as 
one of the potent causes of difficulty between the 
different classes of the population. 

A mutiny among the troops occurred during 
William, Duke of Manchester's administration of the 
government, and troubles multiplied. Wars inter- 
fered with commerce, storms devastated the planta- 
tions, and the agitation over the slave question be- 
came more and more violent. 

The bitter feeling of the planters against the 
Imperial Government resulted in a threat to unite 
with the United States. The excitement spread to 
the slaves. An outbreak and bloodshed was the re- 
sult, and martial law was proclaimed. During the 
Earl of Musgrave's rule, the colony denied the right 
of the Imperial Government to legislate for Jamaica. 
A long controversy ensued, resulting in the passing of 



History of Jamaica. 17 

the Emancipation Act, which provided that, " From 
and after the 1st of August, 1834, all the slaves in the 
colonial possessions of Great Britain should be forever 
free, but subject to an intermediate state of six years' 
apprenticeship for praedials and four years for do- 
mestics." In 1838 and '40 the negroes of Jamaica, 
through the exertions of the venerated Wilberforce 
and others, became freedmen. In the early years of 
one of the greatest reigns that England has known, 
this attempt was made to right a great wrong. In the 
fifty years that have intervened, the experiment has 
been working, at first very slowly, because of dense 
ignorance and great misunderstanding on both sides, 
but latterly more rapidly toward its legitimate con- 
clusion. 

The history of Jamaica since the year 1840 is al- 
most too recent to be fairly written. It is difficult to 
get the proper proportion and perspective at such 
short range. Unquestionably the immediate effect of 
emancipation was disastrous, coming when it did, 
upon Jamaican industry. Before that time the es- 
tates were greatly impoverished, and were beginning 
to yield much less than they had done a few years 
previously. In 1805, had been the largest production 
of sugar, the estates aggregating that year 150,352 
hogsheads. This was doubtless partly due to the 
introduction of Bourbon cane in 1799, for at the begin- 
ning of this century the output of sugar rose from 95,- 
858 to 110,000 hogsheads, and never fell below 100,000 
again till Mr. Channing made his anti-slavery resolu- 
tions in 1823. Rum, too, in 1806 reached 58,780 



1 8 History of Jamaica. 

puncheons. Fifty years later the production of sugar 
had fallen to 41,656 hogsheads. 

Emancipation found the planters in a pitiable con- 
dition financially. The majority were debtors to 
English houses. The £5,853,975 sterling awarded as 
compensation for the loss of their human property, 
insufficient as the sum was, went for the most part 
into the hands of their creditors. They were left 
without resources, with overworked estates, antiquated 
machinery, scarcity of labor and a poor market. 

Lord Sligo, who arrived in 1835, found his part in 
an impoverished country, a thankless one. He soon 
gave place to Sir Chas. Metcalfe, who succeeded in 
restoring peace between Jamaica and the mother 
country. He retired in 1842. 

During these years, further misfortunes visited the 
planters. In slavery times the English Government 
by heavy differential duty on foreign sugar, pro- 
tected Jamaica. But the adoption of free trade 
policy a few years after emancipation reduced the 
price of sugar one-half to the English consumer, and 
made the planter's profit correspondingly lighter at a 
time when he could ill afford any diminution of in- 
come. Abolition had cut down the labor supply. 
Free trade had further diminished the chance for 
profit in sugar growing. Estates were heavily mort- 
gaged and many were abandoned. 

To understand more fully the condition of the 
island at this time, and its bearing upon subsequent 
events, it will be necessary to inquire what were the 
relations existing between the white man and the 



History of Jamaica. 19 

negro before and after the latter ceased to be prop- 
erty. In the early days the slaves were undoubtedly 
overworked and cruelly treated. In the years suc- 
ceeding those of the two greatest crops, nine thou- 
sand were annually imported to repair losses. Since 
emancipation the freedmen have multiplied by natural 
increase. 




Each slave had a little patch of ground which he 
was allowed to cultivate ; he was given two suits of 
clothes per annum, and provided with medical attend- 
ance when ill. The average value of a slave was in 
the neighborhood of £$$. England paid ,£19 per 
capita for them. 

Doubtless there was much reason for the exceed- 



20 History of Jamaica. 

ingly bitter feeling with which the two classes were 
inclined to regard each other. 

There appears to have been a downright fear on the 
part of the white Creole that the black men might 
assert their numerical superiority and take matters on 
the island into their own hands. That seems to be 
the reason for certain discriminating laws by which 
planters could eject negro tenants at a week's notice 
and destroy the fruits of their industry. There was a 
heavy stamp duty on the transfer of small parcels of 
land ; an import duty on corn food, which was raised 
from 3</. to 3.5-. per barrel ; a duty on shingles (while 
the staves and hoops used by the planter had the duty 
to which they were subject, reduced) ; a license re- 
quired of those who sold at retail, while none was 
required of the wholesale dealer; a discriminating 
tax on sugar and coffee. 

In addition to these legal bars and checks the 
planters refused to sell or lease small holdings, so that 
the negroes were compelled to wait for estates to go 
to the hammer. 

These things were done, apparently, for no other 
reason than to prevent the exercise of that brute 
power which the negro undoubtedly possessed. Out- 
numbered in a country where the inhabitants were 
subject to every insular disadvantage, it is not strange 
that a violent use was made of such strength as the 
white man had to keep his black neighbor disarmed. 

It must be borne in mind that the abolition act of 
May, 1833, followed the slave uprising of the previous 
year and the excitement that attended it ; an agitation 



History of Jamaica. 21 

so great that certain dissenting ministers and mission- 
aries were freely charged with incendiary conduct. 
In 1840 a plan for the introduction of coolie laborers 
was carried into effect, 20,000 of these Indian hands 
being thus added to the working population of the 
island. It was not only expected that the coolie 
would supplement the ordinary labor supply, but 
would, upon extraordinary occasions, stand between 
the planter and the inconvenience and loss which he 
experienced from the intermittent industry of the 
irresponsible freedman. The Indian was a check 
upon that spirit of independence which, however com- 
mendable in theory, has sometimes been a bane prac- 
tically. 

The introduction of the coolies, like the acts imme- 
diately following the abolition of African slavery, was 
simply an expedient ; a bridge by which the governing 
class tried to cross that slough of despond by which 
Jamaican industries were encompassed. In spite of 
the honest opposition to which it was subjected it 
bids fair to prove itself an act of statesmanship, having 
resulted in the permanent accomplishment of several 
of the results sought for. As to the other acts to 
which we have referred, they did not even serve their 
immediate purpose. Indeed, the various taxes, checks 
and disabilities to which the negroes were then sub- 
jected hastened an outbreak which culminated in a 
veritable reign of terror. 

In 1850, the island was cursed with its first infliction 
of Asiatic cholera, which nearly decimated the popula- 
tion and further depressed agriculture and commerce. 



22 History of Jamaica. 

In 1865, while Mr. Edward John Eyre was governor 
of Jamaica, a storm which had been long gathering, 
burst upon the island. While those who participated 
in the events of that time are still, in many cases, 
engaged actively in the government and social affairs 
of the colony, it is yet too early to give more than a 
brief outline of the negro uprising in the East. 

Mr. George William Gordon, born a slave and the 
son of his master, had become a man of mark in 
Jamaica, having acquired property and being actively 
engaged in politics. An elected member of the gov- 
ernment, and belonging by virtue of his possessions to 
a class usually conservative, Mr. Gordon was called by 
many people an agitator — a negrophile. 

At a time when meteorological causes had resulted 
in poor crops, and the American war made provisions 
high, so that the people were discontented by reason 
of actual want, Gordon presided at a meeting i-n 
Kingston at which speeches were made inciting, urging 
the people of African descent to " form themselves 
into societies, hold public meetings, and co-operate for 
the purpose of setting forth their grievances." 

Whatever the purpose of Gordon and his party, it 
was soon lost sight of in the disastrous and unlooked- 
for result. The people to whom he had appealed, 
being very ignorant, knew nothing of arguments or 
appeals, or the niceties of legal redress. They were 
abundantly gifted with savage passions, and they were 
proficient in the use of the machete. There were 
certain individuals whom they greatly hated, and a 
class whose interests were all opposed to their own. 



History of Jamaica. 23 

They would appeal to the machete. That seemed 
reasonable to them. 

On the nth of October the custos and vestry of St. 
Thomas in the East, met at the court-house at Morant, 
where they were attended by a protecting body of 
volunteers. An attack by the excited blacks resulted 
in the murder of nearly all of that vestry, the slaughter 
of all the officers and nearly all of the private men of 
the volunteer command, and the perpetuation of the 
most atrocious barbarity by the insurgents. 

The fight at Morant Court-house was one of almost 
unexempled ferocity and horror. The pillage, arson 
and bloodshed which followed it filled the island with 
terror. 

When Governor Eyre was informed of the outrage 
he took measures to put down the rebellion. White 
troops and volunteers, aided effectually by the 
Maroons, crushed the insurrection in a week. Mar- 
tial law had at once been proclaimed and was in oper- 
ation for a month. 

Among the hundreds who were arrested was Mr. 
Gordon, who was summarily tried by court-martial 
and on the verdict of that insufficient tribunal, hanged. 
Those of his friends and enemies now living may 
settle upon the term by which his execution is to be 
named. 

The report of the commission appointed by the 
crown to inquire into the cause of the outbreak, and 
the means used to suppress it, will give a clear enough 
idea of Governor Eyre's acts. The commission of 
inquiry, whose president was Sir Henry Knight 



24 History of Jamaica. 

Storks, associated with whom were Mr. Russell Guer- 
ney, the Recorder, of London, and Mr. J. B. Maule, 
the Recorder of Leeds, reported as follows : 

" (i) That the punishments inflicted during martial 
law were excessive ; (2) that the punishment of 
death was unnecessarily frequent ; (3) that the flog- 
gings were reckless and at Bath positively barbarous ; 
(4) that the burning of one thousand houses was 
wanton and cruel." The commissioners also reported 
that the " disturbances had their immediate origin in a 
planned resistance to lawful authority," and that " a 
principal object of the disturbers of order was the 
obtaining of land free from the payment of rent." 



LATER DAYS. 



There is every reason for refraining from presenting 
for the perusal of intelligent men the record of their 
own acts, except when they have become components 
of a rounded epoch, a completed chapter of history. 

The years following the insurrection that ended 
with the execution of Gordon were marked by some 
radical changes, both in the form of government and 
the commercial life of the colony. 

Under Governor Eyre's influence the legislature 
passed an act abolishing the constitution and virtually 
tendering the government to the crown. The act 
empowered her Majesty, the Queen, " to create and 
constitute a government for this island in such form 
and with such powers as to her Majesty may seem 
best fitting." This act, endorsed by the crown, was 
the final surrender of those liberties for which Jamai- 
cans of other days had hotly contended : a represent- 
ative government which had, in a history of two 
hundred and two years been almost Republican in its 
powers and pretentions. 

Upon the report of Sir Henry Knight Stocks and 
his commission, upon the conduct of Governor Eyre, 
the crown refused to replace him at the head of the 
Jamaican government and he left Jamaica. 



26 



History of Jamaica. 




Later Days. 27 

In 1865, the year of the insurrection, financial affairs 
were at their lowest ebb. In September, less than a 
month before the outbreak, the colonial treasurer 
showed a deficit of about £80,000, and this was fol- 
lowed by unusual expenses due to that affair. To 
cover these, a rum duty, house tax, and various tariff 
burdens were imposed. Trade licenses were required 
to be purchased by those engaged in certain branches 
of business. The result of these necessary enactments 
was a temporary revival of the treasury. Three years 
after Governor Eyre's departure there, was a surplus 

°f £5,599- 

The year 1868 should be a red letter one in Jamai- 
can annals. It was the turn of the tide, the dawning 
that came after the darkest night: the year of the first 
surplus ; the year of the first fruit shipment from Port 
Antonio; of the revival of coolie immigration; of the 
first cinchona planting on the Blue Mountain. 

Sir Peter Grant was then governor. Throughout 
the whole of his administration of government there 
was an annual surplus in the treasury. Reporting on 
the financial situation in 1871-72 he says : " The con- 
tinuing surplus accrues from no increase of taxation, 
and is in the face of a large expenditure on public 
works of utility and importance, of a largely increas- 
ing expenditure on such departments as those of 
education and medicine, and of some increase of ex- 
penditure in those administrative and revenue depart- 
ments which necessarily require development as the 
population and wealth of the colony become devel- 
oped." About the time that the report .just quoted 



28 History of Jamaica. 

from was written, the import duty levied in the early 
part of 1868 was removed, and certain tonnage dues 
and taxes on live stock taken away. 

1871 saw the disestablishment of the Church of 
England, the repeal of the law granting power to the 
governor to proclaim martial law in times of insur- 
rection, and the taking of the census. The population 
was then estimated at 506,154. The seat of govern- 
ment was at this time removed from Spanish Town to 
Kingston, a move which was decidedly against the 
experience of nations, and could hardly be defended 
on the plea of convenience. Not only were the com- 
modious buildings and government property aban- 
doned and allowed to go to decay, but the defence of 
a retired position, the advantage of comparative isola- 
tion from the centre of business activity, and the value 
of historic association were alike given up for a posi- 
tion of small advantage to the routine of public work, 
whatever benefit it may be to the merchant or profes- 
sional man. 

Sir J. P. Grant had an opportunity to test the value 
of an island statute, relating to the confiscation of 
munitions of war landed in Jamaica. 

The La Have, cleared for Kingston and loaded with 
arms, was captured by a Spanish man-of-war and 
brought to Jamaica, where the cargo was duly seized. 
The owners brought suit for £33,000 against the gov- 
ernor, who found himself so hard pushed that he was 
fain to compromise for £7,920, giving his note there- 
for. The colonial council redeemed the note and the 
Imperial Government finally refunded the money. 



Later Days. 29 

Sir William Gray superseded Sir J. P. Grant in 
1874, and ruled till 1877. Though these years were 
disastrous in some respects, being marked by drought, 
floods, destruction of roads, and the small-pox, besides 
a financial crisis in which several prominent houses 
went under, yet there was also the establishment of 
the Kingston street cars and the completion of the 
Rio Cobre irrigation canal, a work of which it would 
be difficult to overestimate the value. 

Lieutenant-Governor Rushworth succeeded to Sir 
William Gray in the management of the government, 
in 1877. Kingston was lighted with gas that year, 
Jamaica was admitted to the postal union, and the 
commission to inquire into the condition of the juve- 
nile population appointed, with results decidedly bene- 
ficial, as it led to the establishment of the system of 
education now operative, besides calling attention 
to certain other necessary reforms. Before the end of 
the year the lieutenant-governor died, and Sir An- 
thony Musgrave succeeded him. At the beginning of 
his administration financial affairs were not in good 
shape. The transfer of a large immigration debt, 
together with hospital and other expenses, added to a 
deficit in the general account of ^"4,063 ; and an antici- 
pated deficit for 1878 of ^2,683 burdened the treasury. 
To meet the exigency the governor recommended 
that the poll tax on cattle, removed seven years 
before, should be reimposed and a loan raised. This 
was enacted, and thus began an administration which, 
while not always brilliantly successful financially, was 
still marked not only by the adoption of some neces- 



3o History of Jamaica. 

sary expedients in raising the revenue, but by a gener- 
ally wise and enlightened policy, and the institution of 
a number of public works and reforms, by which the 
island is still benefitted. 

The expenditure on public works during the first 
year enabled the treasurer to report a surplus, the new 
loan being added to the public debt. But afterwards 
the measures already alluded to were carried through 
with judgment and vigor. 

The railway and telegraph facilities now enjoyed by 
the island are due to Governor Musgrave, as is also its 
cable communication with the rest of the world. The 
judicial system was improved and the consolidation of 
the superior courts accomplished. The Victoria Insti- 
tute, for the promotion of literature, science and art, 
was established. The cinchona plantations were made 
in St. Andrews, and an annual scholarship founded in 
Kingston, which made possible to the holder admis- 
sion to either of the English universities. Besides 
these things a change in administration of the high 
school and in the efficiency of the teachers' training 
schools were inaugurated. In 1879 a new marriage law 
was passed, making civil marriages legal. 

Nature, during this administration, did not act as 
the supporter of the governor and his council in their 
efforts for the advancement of Jamaican interests. 
Floods, a drought, a cyclone, earthquakes and other 
calamities caused considerable distress, some loss of 
life and injury to commerce. By wise management 
much of the" ill effect of these things was averted how- 
ever. 



Later Days. 31 

The delay of the schooner Florence^ laden with 
arms and bound for Venezuela, but driven into Kings- 
ton by stress of weather, caused complications which 
led to some debate and the recognition of all the non- 
official members of the council. The four parties to 
the disagreement were Sir Anthony Musgrave, and the 
Collector of Customs, who made the seizure ; the 
Venezuelan owners of the cargo, the Secretary of 
State, who instructed the governor to request the leg- 
islative council to pay damages and costs after the 
suit, and the council, who claimed that the acts of the 
governor were entirely on the ground of international 
and imperial duty. This controversy led to the ap- 
pointment of commissioners to inquire into the financial 
questions involved and to report upon them, who 
arrived just after the disastrous Kingston fire, which 
occurred in 1881, on the nth of December. The 
commissioners adopted one important suggestion 
made by Sir Anthony Musgrave, that is, the creation 
of the office of Collector General, the incumbent of 
which should preside over the joint departments of 
the revenue and treasury This was approved by the 
Secretary of State. 

The Kingston fire, just referred to, swept over the 
town, damaging property to the value of £1 $0,000. 
Great distress was occasioned, but without question 
the temporary loss and hurt were more than balanced 
by subsequent improvements in building and busi- 
ness. 

The retirement of Governor Musgrave was the 
cause of sincere regret on the part of the people of 



32 History of Jamaica, 

Jamaica, who recognized his wisdom and appreciated 
the earnestness of his efforts for their advantage. 

During Governor Gamble's rule in 1883, promises 
were made by the crown that a constitutional change 
should be made for Jamaica, and the elective element, 
enjoyed for so many years prior to the disastrous 
events of Governor Eyre's administration, should be 
restored. 

These promises were carried into effect in 1884, 
while Sir Henry Wylie Norman was at the head of 
affairs. A royal commission to report on the franchise 
consisted of the following named gentlemen : Hon. 
William Harriott Coke, Hon. William Vickers, Hon. 
Michael Solomon, Hon. Arthur Watson-Taylor, Hon. 
Thomas Lloyd Harvey, Mr. Samuel Constantine 
Burke, Dr. James Cecil Phillipo, and Mr. George 
Stiebel. Upon the reception of a despatch from Lord 
Derby, which did not promise to the people under the 
new constitution all the liberty of government which 
they sought, especially in questions of finance, there 
were numerous private and public meetings held in 
several parts of the island, and protests made against 
accepting anything less than a " definite, substantial 
and effective control over the financial affairs of the 
country." At a public meeting in Kingston a resolu- 
tion was passed, protesting among other matters that 
"the governor's presence and power in the council 
has been in the past and will be in the future, unduly 
restrictive of the freedom of debate." To this the 
governor replied ; the commissioners of finance com- 
mented upon it at some length and considerable 



Later Days. 33 

warmth was shown in the controversy, but no conclu- 
sion was reached for a time. On June 20th of that 
year an order in council, by her Majesty, was issued, 
reconstituting the legislative council of Jamaica. 

The elections were carried through with an absence 
of anything like excitement or disturbance ; a quie- 
tude more surprising, when we consider that such im- 
portant changes in the governmental affairs of other 
countries have frequently been accompanied by more 
or less disturbance and have led to unpleasant results. 

Events more recent than those which we have so 
briefly noticed are not yet history, and wherever they 
come within the scope of this work must be treated in 
other chapters. 



CLIMATE. 



The varied surface of Jamaica, with altitudes rang- 
ing from the levels along the sea, up through the pla- 
teaus of the western end of the island to the 7,360 feet 
of the Blue Mountain Peaks, affords a range of climate 
which leaves little to be desired by either the seeker 
after health or the permanent resident, provided the 
ability to move from one elevation to the other is taken 
for granted. It cannot be denied that during certain 
seasons, principally from June 15 to. September 15, life 
in the larger towns is far from enjoyable on account of 
the heat. Yet it is quite safe to say that during that 
same period the resident of Kingston can maintain the 
mental equipoise due to a freedom from overheating 
with greater ease than can the sojourner in New York 
City. This is due to several causes, principal among 
which may be mentioned the following : the ther- 
mometer does not reach the "upper nineties ; " there 
is nearly always present during the midday a strong 
sea breeze — commonly called "the Doctor;" life 
goes on at a slower and more comfortable pace, the 
houses, needing no provisions against the colds of fall 
and winter, are constructed only with a view to keep- 
ing out the rain and the heat, and are, where well sit- 
uated, perfect abodes of sombre and enchanting cool- 



Climate. 



35 



ness ; and lastly, though principally, the nights arc 
never unbearable. On the outskirts of Kingston the 
thermometer, carefully watched during the hot 
month of August, 1890, by the Observer of the United 
States Signal Service, stationed there to warn his Gov- 
ernment of approaching hurricanes, never registered 
above 88°, though the New York papers were at that 
time laden with complaints and accounts of the exces- 
sive heat throughout the Northern States, where even 
death was the result of exertion in a temperature rang- 
ing near the ioo° mark. Just prior to this period one of 
the authors of this book was called away from Jamaica 
to New York. His letters to his more fortunate con- 
frere, who remained behind in the upper Liguanea plain, 
St. Andrews, at an elevation of less than 500 feet, at the 
Constant Spring Hotel, were remarkable as coming 
from a denizen of the " bleak north-land " to a resident 
of the "sweltering tropics." While he was toiling 
over baked pavement with 98 in the shade as no un- 
usual condition, and the humidity of the atmosphere 
a prominent characteristic, his collaberateur was not 
called on to withstand the effects of a daily average of 
over 8o° and a maximum of 87 , in a remarkably dry 
atmosphere, and with nights when the mercury fre- 
quently went down to 63 and seldom remained over 
70 . In this last particular the Jamaican climate is 
notably strong. Persons resident in the island for 
many years, have never experienced a time when dur- 
ing a whole night through, sleep was uncomfortable 
by reason of the heat. Rather is it likely to be dis- 
turbed by the necessity of procuring an extra blanket 



36 The New Jamaica. 

or counterpane between the hours of two and five 
A. M. . 

The temperature varies with the altitude: though 
a rare occurrence, frost is to be found on these higher 
peaks, and once in several years ice is said to form on 
and near the Blue Mountain Peaks. The histories 
speak of occasional visitations of cold winds through 
these mountain districts, the climax seeming to have 
been reached when, in 167 1, was experienced " the 
blast " — a severe and very cold wind which destroyed 
many crops, not only in the hills but in the low 
lands as well, where especially cacao and indigo 
suffered. 

While the general average of temperature is remark- 
ably uniform throughout the island, the average rain- 
fall presents phenomena which seem to be quite 
beyond the present understanding of the student of 
meteorology. The line of demarkation between two 
adjoining districts is even more marked when consid- 
ered from the point of rainfall, than is its natural line 
perhaps formed by a precipitous mountain range. A 
visitor to the Dry Harbor Mountains of St. Ann's may 
find the inhabitants of Brownstown and vicinity actu- 
ally suffering for water, and to a great extent depen- 
dent upon the enterprise and iiberal-mindedness of a 
prominent doctor missionary who is the happy pos- 
sessor of some famous tanks of rainwater, saved against 
the day of need. Yet after a brief journey into the 
adjoining parishes, both to southward and westward, he 
will come to regions where the red clay and contrasting 
deep greens will tell him of the almost daily heavy 



Climate. 37 

showers, which render ' these plateaus at times' rather 
too damp for comfort. 

Though along the highest ranges rains are of almost 
daily occurrence for most of the year, still for the 
island in general it is a usually safe rule to say, that 
the months of May and October witness the heights of 
the rainy seasons, and that from July to the beginning 
of the fall rainy season, usually late in September, 
heavy showers are very frequent. For two centuries 
this general rule has been observed to hold true. Sir 
Hans Sloane, the noted naturalist, writing of his expe- 
riences in Jamaica two hundred years ago, thus speaks 
in the preface to his li Natural History of Jamaica" : 
- " According to the different positions of the places, 
so the rains are more or less violent, and come at 
different times ; but, generally speaking, the two great 
rainy seasons are in May and October, in which months, 
at new or full moon, they begin, and continue day and 
night for a whole fortnight with great violence so that 
the earth in all level places is laid under water for 
some inches. * * * * * 

" In the month of January is likewise expected a 
season of rain, but this is not so constant nor violent 
as are the other two, and probably may come from 
the violent norths coming over the mountains with 
part of their rains with them ; for in the north side of 
the island rains in that month are generally very fre- 
quent and violent. **.*_* 

" For all the summer months, or when the sun is 
near or over their heads, or through almost the whole 
year, towards noon it rains on some part of the ridge 



38 The New Jamaica. 

of mountains, running through the island, with thun- 
der and lightning. These rains seldom reach two or 
three miles into the plains ; wherefore, on account of 
these rains, any valleys lying very near or amongst the 
mountains have more seasons and are more fertile 
than the plains farther off, which, if they have any 
rain, is but the outskirts of that in the mountains and 
therefore inconsiderable." 

Commenting on this very accurate account of the 
rainfall, Mr. Maxwell Hall, F. R. A. S., says : 

" It thus appears that Sloane has alluded to the 
May and October rains, to the winter rains on the 
north side, to the summer rains on the central hills, 
and to the small rainfall on the southern plains. Con- 
sequently the characteristics of the rainfall have not 
altered for at least two hundred years." 

It is to Mr. Hall that an intimate knowledge of the 
meteorological conditions holding throughout Jamaica 
is due. From Kempshot Observatory, about five 
miles northeast of Montego Bay and in latitude i8° 
24' 50" 8 N., and W. longitude, 78 52' 22" 8, at an alti- 
tude of 1,773 feet, Mr. Hall has for some years con- 
ducted and directed labors which have greatly added 
to the rather meagre tables which were in existence 
before he entered the field. 

To compare the temperature of Jamaica with the 
northern States of the United States or with England, 
one should observe that the mean for the summer 
months reaches only about 8i°, and that for the winter 
months it does not descend to 75 . With a maximum 
under 90 and a minimum over 70 , with a mean differ- 



Climate. 39 

ence during the day and evening of 1 5 .4°, life can 
never be an absolute burden, even in Kingston, where 
the severest conditions are to be found. When the 
fact that a fourteen mile ride will take the invalid 
above the fever line to an altitude of 4,000 feet, where 
the mean is fully io° below the 78. 6° of Kingston, is 
recalled, it will at once be seen that, to quote from the 
Hon. Geo. E. Hoskinson, late Consul for the United 
States at Kingston : " For people of temperate habits, 
Jamaica is as healthy a place for residence as any in 
the United States and in this I think the records of 
the Medical Bureau will bear me out." 

The italics in the last sentence are ours. Nothing 
is more impressive to the visitor than the foolhardi- 
ness shown in this respect by many, especially young 
men, who, coming out from the colder north, usually 
during the winter months, when the contrast in tem- 
perature is very great, find here a social condition, 
among the better classes of men, which is famous for 
its hospitality and good-fellowship. The rum of the 
island, a most seductive beverage, lends itself readily 
to many decoctions which to the uninitiated are as 
injurious as they are novel. 

While the native gentleman, though sometimes the 
happier, is very seldom indeed the worse for his glass, 
the stranger, on the other hand, though the last man 
to indulge in such freedom, too often attempts to vie 
with and outdo his hospitable acquaintance. The 
result is frequently an attack of " pernicious " fever, so 
called here, a form of fever, which though not by any 
means the dreaded "yellow jack," has no doubt often 



40 The New Jamaica, 

been called upon to bear that fatal malady's burdens. 
A concensus of opinion taken from numbers of the 
medical men throughout the island, bears us out in 
the statement that fully one-half the deaths of visitors 
or temporary residents from febrile causes can readily 
be traced to excesses in liquor or those exposures 
which intoxication so generally leads to. 

From the foregoing, however, it should not be 
understood that deaths from these causes are common. 
It is only the case that a death rate, already low, is 
somewhat increased by these breaches of the laws of 
hygiene. 

In this connection it will interest the reader to know 
that leading Life Insurance Companies in the United 
States now recognize the fact that the same care taken 
against overheating in Jamaica that it is presumed 
their patrons take against the cold of the northern 
winters will make it safe for them to allow their poli- 
cies to cover residence in the island without restric- 
tions or the increase of rates. 

After what has been said of the varying altitudes 
and the considerable range of temperature and humid- 
ity, it will at once be understood that Jamaica affords 
rare opportunities for the health-seeker to obtain just 
such conditions as are best suited to his case. For a 
full discussion of this subject the reader is referred to 
a work entitled " The Climate of Jamaica," by James 
Cecil Phillippo, M. D., L. R. C. S. (Edin.) etc., London, 
T. & A. Churchill. Dr. Phillippo has had many years' 
experience as one of the foremost physicians in the 
island. 



Climate. 41 

In the "Handbook " for 1882, the Rev. Alexander 
Robb, D. D., says : " There are few of us but can tell 
of those we have known* seriously threatened and in 
danger, taking refuge here, with speedy and with 
much advantage. Persons who could scarcely have 
hoped to live through, a northern winter, by coming 
hither have been so far restored as to live for years, 
and accomplished much important work.* * * In 
fact the experience is so extensive and its testimony is 
so assuring, that we may hold it settled, that persons 
of the class mentioned who can come to Jamaica may 
do so with the best of hopes." 

Before closing this hasty consideration of Jamaica 
as a sanitarium, it is well to lay special stress on the 
fact that here life can be to a great extent out of 
doors, even to the advanced invalid. " Perpetual 
June," exactly describes the weather conditions to be 
found here during every one of the twelve months of 
the year. The Jamaica house is more like a series of 
closed verandas bunched together than any other 
form of domicile known to the northern builder. 
Here in these veranda-like rooms with the jalousie 
blinds closed in case of wind or rain, or with them 
thrown open to the free entrance of the balmy breezes 
most of the time, the invalid cannot fail to recover, 
unless perchance the exodus to Jamaica has been left 
until it is too late. Here the breeze is ozone laden to 
the fall ; nature is ever in her brightest garb ; and the 
cool nights -insure the presence of the sweet restorer — 
sleep. 



COMMERCIAL LIFE AND RELATIONS. 



" THE tone of thought in commercial circles in 
Kingston is now much more American than English; 
and reference is much more frequently made to the 
opinion of the States and New York than to that of 
England and London." 

So writes an English author who has carefully con- 
sidered his subject. 

To begin: it must be remembered that Jamaica has 
practically no manufactories except those of sugar and 
rum, and a few products such as the bamboo, which an 
American at Black River is extracting the fibre from. 
The great bulk of what she ships must be either man- 
ufactured goods in transit or the natural products of 
her fields and groves. On the other hand it is appar- 
ent that most of the articles of personal or household 
use or adornment which the dweller in Jamaica uses, 
he must import from other countries. 

Who are the parties most interested in this question 
of supply and demand ? 

Of the bananas shipped from Jamaica, out of 2,881,- 
313 bunches, 130 bunches went, in 1889^0 the United 
Kingdom, and 2,879,560 to the United States. Dur- 
ing the same time the United States took sugar to the 
value of £176,353, while England took £32,792 



Commercial Life and Relations. 



43 



worth, and Canada ,£27,632. Of rum (let our temper- 
ance readers note this) England received 1,216,012 
gallons, while the United States contented themselves 
with 37,442 gallons and Canada got along with 5,823. 

The total exports from the island during 1888-89 
(which we quote because the official figures have not 
yet been published for '90 at the time this book goes 
to press) amounted in value to £ 1,614,824, of which 
nearly all is reckoned on island produce. Of this 
amount England paid £525,118, and the United States 
£793,310, after which came France, Germany, Canada 
in the order in which they are named. 

There arrived from Great Britain during that last 
year 58 steamers and 17 sailing vessels with an aggre- 
gate tonnage (vessels in ballast only excluded) of 
97,239; from the United States of America 276 steam- 
ers and 57 sail, the tonnage being 167,102. The vessels 
that cleared during this period registered as follows : 
To Great Britain 118,032 tons: to the United States 
207,169 tons. For the past 10 years, 



Imports. 

1879-80 ^"1,475,197 

1SS0-S1. 1,342,699 

i,3 2r >962 



1881-82 

1882-83 1,625,411 

1S83-84 1,568,639 

1S84-S5 i,487333 

1885-86 1,325,603 

1886-87 i>35 x >394 

1887-88 1,695,605 

1888-89 1,597,600 

The imports were drawn as follows during the last 
two years : 



Exports. 

1879-80 £1,512,978 

1880-81 IJ78.594 

1881-82 1,549^58 

1882-83 1,469,446 

1883-S4 1,483,989 

18S4-85 1,408,848 

1885-S6 1,280,118 

1886-87 1,509,010 

1887-8S 1,828,590 

1SS8-89 1,614,823 



44 The New Jamaica. 

1887-88. 1888-89. 

United Kingdom 62.8 55. 

United States 277 33.9 

Canada . 6.6 9.8 

Other Countries 2.9 1.3 

This shows a marked increase made by the United 
States of America and Canada during one year. There 
was a decrease in most of the staples of exports over 
the maximum figures of the year before, but an 
increase over previous years. The trade with the 
United States is unquestionably growing. 

It may surprise the Northerner — British or Ameri- 
can — to learn thaf one of the largest trade correspon- 
dents, next to those we have been figuring upon, is the 
United States of Columbia. 

There is a moral to all this. Whether Canada has 
understood it better than other countries and shown 
her appreciation of the situation by applying for more 
space at the coming exhibition, is a matter for consid- 
eration. Certainly the trade with an island containing 
600,000 souls (and bodies as well) is an item well 
worth considering by any nation. 

The recent publication of figures showing the in- 
crease of certain exports in July, 1890, over the cor- 
responding month of the previous year, encourages us 
to believe that the advance is a steady and healthy 
one ; although in a few cases there has been a slight 
falling off in quantity, as is the case with cocoanuts. 
There has been an increase in the coffee export of 
nearly one half, and hides show about the same pro- 
portional advance. Sugar, fruit and rum have also 



Commercial Life and Relations. 



45 



increased. Bananas especially show a total of 445,512 
bunches shipped to the United States and Canada as 
against 301,991 bunches in July, 1889. 

Very lately a gentleman who has interested himself 
in oyster culture has been endeavoring to influence 
capital in that direction. He has taken the native 
Jamaican oyster north for examination and trial, and 
in return imports a number of the bivalves for trans- 
planting in Caribbean water. 

Manufacturers of Jamaica do not yet afford any 
appreciable part of her exports. The bamboo fibre 
works at Black River have made a beginning, which is 
mainly significant of what may be done with raw 
products in the island. In Manchester a saw mill 
company has. been recently established, capable of 
turning out 5,000 feet of boards per diem. A very 
small amount of shipbuilding is carried on, principally 
at St. Ann's Bay. 

The staple manufactures are sugar and rum. The 
crushing of the cane and extraction of sap from which 
the sugar is made, and the refuse of which furnishes 
the material for rum distillation, are carried on every- 
where throughout the island. From the primitive 
bamboo frame, mill and mule walk beside some moun- 
tain hut, to the " Wetzel," " Aspinwall "or " vacuum " 
apparatus and centrifugal drying process in use on the 
great estates, the joint production of sweet and strong 
goes on. Jamaica's export of these two products ag- 
gregates between £300,000 and £400,000 a year in value. 

The working day for outdoor laborers is supposed 
to be ten hours, in the neighborhood of Kingston, and 



46 The New Jamaica. 

eight hours in the country. Mechanics get from 2s. 3d. 
to $s.6d. a day ; male laborers is. 6d. to 2s. and women 
gd. to is. A team of two mules, with driver, costs js. 
per diem. 

But much of the work, especially in the country, is 
done by what is known as " task work," evidently a 
survival of the slave days ; the prices for which are 
generally low, except for certain branches of building 
and masonry work. There is a scarcity of skilled 
labor. The sugar estates find common laborers scarce 
and the government works are over supplied. 

Jamaica consumes a great deal of material produced 
and manufactured in other countries. As already shown 
she receives most from Great Britain and sends most 
to the United States. Nevertheless it is easy to find 
all of the necessaries and most of the luxuries of mod- 
ern life, American as well -as English, at moderate 
prices in most of the principal towns. The food sup- 
ply is ample and cheap, fruit being especially so. In 
general, prices compare favorably with those of north- 
ern countries, even for imported goods. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION. 



In September, 1889, Mr. William Fawcett brought 
before the board of directors of the Jamaica Institute 
a proposition " for holding an exhibition in Jamaica, 
illustrative of its natural products and their manufact- 
ure, combined with a loan art exhibition." A plan, 
elaborated from Mr. Fawcett's report, was prepared 
by the board and laid before the governor. His 
Excellency entered heartily into the plan and has 
given it his unstinted support from that hour to this, 
leaving no stone unturned to insure its entire success. 

A meeting of Kingston gentlemen with the governor, 
in the library, was held on the 19th of September ; 
the subject was thoroughly discussed at that time, and 
the pledges of support made by those present gave 
evidence of the faith which representative Jamaicans 
have in their island's capabilities and progress. 

The following resolutions were agreed to at that 
meeting: " 1st. That the other West Indian colonies 
be invited to send such exhibits as will clearly indicate 
the great resources of these colonies. 2d. That special 
exhibits be invited from England and other countries 
with which we trade. 3d. That, in order to provide 
the necessary funds for carrying out the project in a 
thoroughly effectual manner, gentlemen of the island 



48 The New Jamaica. 

be asked to become guarantors to the extent of £\o 
each and upwards." 

Working committees were soon appointed by the 
executive committee, an act of incorporation was 
passed, and commissioners, appointed by the governor, 
began to make preparations for the event. 

At the commissioners' first meeting Quebec Lodge 
was recommended as a site by the building committee. 
A set of plans and estimates was also submitted, the 
whole to cost above ;£ 14,000. 

The site of the building (Quebec Lodge) is to the 
north of the race -course, a mile and a half from 
Kingston harbor and two hundred feet above the 
sea. 

The building is of Moorish architecture, the central 
nave 511 X40 feet, and side aisles making the width 81 
feet. The transepts are 174 feet long and the same 
breadth as nave and aisles. The height of the dome 
is 1 14 and the minarets 74 feet. It is a wooden 
building, well protected, and provided with escapes for 
fire, etc. The long balconies will be used as prome- 
nades. The main entrance is at the east end, and a 
carriage way at the south. The grounds are hand- 
somely laid out with ornamental walks, gardens and 
buildings. A band stand, concert hall, Jamaica village, 
and separate exhibits will add to the attractiveness of 
the exhibition. 

For months the Half-way Tree road has been the 
scene of the transportation of giant palm trees and 
other plants, which, en route to the exhibition grounds, 
are being drawn by patient ox-teams. The display of 



The Industrial Exhibition. 



49 



tropical trees and plants will be one of the great feat- 
ures of the exhibition for the visitor from the North. 

The guarantee fund at the end of June, was officially 
reported to be £27,079 ios 1 . od. Of this the largest 
amount came from Kingston and the next from St. 
Catherine, the smallest being from Hanover and 
Trelawney. 

Conversing with the guarantors, there seems to be a 
general impression among them that they will lose the 
money subscribed, yet we have not found one who re- 
grets lending a hand, or who doubts the ultimate 
benefit that Jamaica will receive from the fair. 

The advance that the banks refused to make in 
December of last year (1889) private parties supplied, 
with that generosity which has been characteristic of 
those interested in this enterprise. Mr. Stiebel loaned 
£5000, Colonel Ward followed suit with a similar sum, 
and Mr. Verley completed the ;£ 15,000. 

The government sanctioned an advance of another 
£15,000 from the public treasury. This £30,000, the 
estimated cost, was secured, ,£25,000 at 3^, and the 
remainder at 6%. 

Committees in various countries have been charged 
with the work of forwarding the interests of the 
exhibition. In Canada the committee has done very 
good and efficient work T if we may judge by the re- 
sults. The people of the United States have never 
been averse to entering largely into such an enterprise 
as this when it is properly represented. Yet the 
Jamaica exhibition will be almost entirely without a 
showing from the United States. 



50 2'ke New Jamaica. 

All exhibits will be arranged under the following 
groups. 

Group I. Raw Material. 

Group 2. Implements for obtaining Raw Material. 

Group 3. Machines and processes used in preparing 
and making up the Raw Material into finished prod- 
ucts. 

Group 4. Manufactured goods. 

Group 5. Education. 

Group 6. Fine arts, literature, science. 

Motive power to the extent of 100 horse-power will 
be provided by the commissioners, free of charge ; but 
all counter shafting, pulleys, and connection with the 
main steam pipe must by provided by exhibitors. 
The exhibition will be open to the public on the 27th 
of January, 1 89 1. 

There was at first a great deal of misunderstanding 
among the peasantry as to the object of the exhibition. 
A common belief in some quarters was that the gov- 
ernment wants to find out what they possess in order 
to tax them more heavily. Poor souls ! many of them 
have not yet learned what the government is trying 
nobly to teach them, that power and benificence may go 
hand in hand. Owing to the strenuous efforts being 
made by his Excellency and his supporters, the lesson 
is, we trust, gradually being learned. 

The application of Austria for four thousand square 
feet of space for exhibits, led to the serious considera- 
tion of the question of new buildings. The result of 
this has been the erection of additional annexes. 
There are now several structures besides the main one 



The Industrial Exhibition. 51 

already described. A pavilion for the special exhibits 
under the direction of one large firm is noticeable for 
its beauty. An amusement hall, erected for theatri- 
cal performances to be furnished by an English com- 
pany, and capable of seating a large audience is also a 
recent feature. 

A large annex for general exhibits was decided upon 
in September, its dimensions to be 400 by 40 feet. The 
machinery hall measures 100 by 50 feet, and its cost 
is £500. All the annexes as well as the main build- 
ings, have been provided with electric lighting appar- 
atus. 

The available space in the main building is 40,000 
square feet. As England required at least 5000 
feet of this; Canada 8000; Austria 4000 and other 
countries 15,000, and Jamaica runs the amount of 
space required up to 50,000 square feet, exclusive of 
20,000 feet of walking space, the necessity for the 
annexes will be apparent. 

In the extensive grounds the visitor will find an 
electric railway, a toboggan slide, merry go round, 
etc. • An artificial lake with "leviathan" for passen- 
gers has been furnished by Col. Forster of New York. 
The extension of the grounds, which makes a further 
encroachment upon the forty-five acres of the race 
grounds, renders these additional attractions and dis- 
plays possible. 

To the delight of many who thought the outdoor 
space at first allotted inadequate, the acquisition of 
additional ground was also made early in the autumn. 
This of course gave opportunity for an increased 



52 The New Jamaica. 

floral and arboreal display. Although not completed 
when this work goes to press, enough has been done 
to convince those who have had an opportunity to 
note the progress of this garden that it will equal 
in tropical beauty and luxuriance, anything that the 
world has produced in modern times. 

The Austrian exhibit, we are informed, will be 
arranged by artists from Europe, sent especially to 
attend to this work. 

England's grant of ;£ 10,000 has been a great benefit 
to the exhibition. The refusal of the United States 
to show any interest in the matter is one of those evi- 
dences of want of foresight that is to be deplored. 
Whatever has been done by American exhibitors has 
been without the encouragement of their government. 

Among the curious exhibits recently noted has 
been one by the military department and another by 
the English Post Office Department. The West 
India Islands have been well represented and in fact 
there has been no lack of effort to push this great 
undertaking to a successful conclusion. 

The local shows, which in Clarendon, Portland, 
Hanover and elsewhere have aided greatly in awaken- 
ing interest and enthusiasm in the people of the 
island, have proven by the result the wisdom of those 
who urged them on. The Clarendon Exhibition or 
"show" held at May Pen, was quite successful. The 
river, which was dry when we last saw it, had consider- 
able water flowing in the middle of September and 
this added to the attractiveness of the place for visi- 
tors. 



The Industrial Exhibition. 53 

After considerable debate about the Portland fair, 
at Port Antonio, it was decided to- hold it in the fort. 

What the outcome of Jamaica's great industrial 
exhibition will be remains to be shown. We have 
little doubt of its success. It has already awakened 
some who were in a state of lethargy, and has even 
now begun to rouse a spirit of emulation which cannot 
fail to be beneficial to the people at large. 



A CITY UNDER THE SUN. 



IP^/aS 



r^- m 



t 



The third hottest city in the 
world — that is what Kingston is 
sometimes called, and there are 
very many people who class it 
with some of the dreaded South 
American fever nests, where those 
who are not to the manner born 
often succumb to the power of a 
ff^^ill vertical sun. 

The fact is that either a very 
wrong impression has been created 
by such estimates as those of 
Trollope and others who have 
followed him during the last forty 
years, or else the world's capacity 
to provide hot places has been hugely overestimated, 



yJm 



■^>—<^ \ -A ' < Mi 



A City Under the Sun. 55 

for certainly a large and contented foreign population 
make Kingston their temporary habitat, and, with a 
little attention to the commonest hygienic laws, are 
not only able to exist, but to be comfortable. 

Another false impression given is that the streets 
are all bad ; and a third, that the rainy season is apt 
to overtake the unsuspecting Northern foreigner with 
diluvian intensity, and make the Jamaican metropolis 
a repetition of Venice. 

The fact is that Kingston may have sixty showers 
in the course of a twelvemonth, a large percentage of 
the annual rainfall having been known to occur in a 
very few hours. While the showers last, owing to the 
backing of high hills which the city has, the flood de- 
scends as soon as the rains fall, and the immediate and 
pleasant result is that the drains and gutters are thus 
flushed, to the preservation of health and the conser- 
vation of comfort. 

Indeed, a wise and careful Providence has sent three 
agents to purify this old city and make it comfortably 
habitable ; these are the rains, the Doctor, and John 
Crow. By the Doctor the Jamaican means the 
breeze that, pays a morning and an evening visit, laden 
with comfort and life. John Crow is the first being to 
attract the attention of the tourist, even before he 
falls into the clutches of those fiends, the cabmen, at 
the wharf. John has a leisurely, familiar way with 
him. If life is worth living, it is at least not worth 
hurrying for, in his estimation. Black of coat, ragged 
of wing, red as to head, and heavy in flight, besides 
being misnamed " vulture" poor John Crow is pro- 



56 The New Jamaica. 

tected by law as a useful scavenger. Sometimes 
people call him the street-cleaner. He is a member of 
the buzzard connection, but with a lurid head and ruff 
of feathers encircling his bare neck that suggest the 
vulture. No one has taken the census of the John 
Crow tribe, but it is safe to assume that their number 
reaches far into the thousands. It is almost impossi- 
ble to look upward without seeing several of them at 
once ; they come down within a few feet of one, if 
there is any inducement offered, and roost in the trees 
about a house at night, or do their dreaming upon 
your fence or ridge-pole. 

At first the Northerner receives a multitude of im- 
pressions that clamor to be assorted and classified. 
He is amused, interested, perhaps disgusted, with the 
extortionate cabman who sees in every stranger a pos- 
sible victim. But if the new-comer falls as we did, into 
such hands as those of Old Joe, his wounded feelings 
are speedily soothed and his mind set at rest. There 
are servants and servants in Kingston as elsewhere. 
Among servants, Old Joe stands pre-eminent. His 
kind, wrinkled face is wreathed in a perpetual smile. 
His aged hands are clasped and unclasped as he bows 
slightly over them while he talks. There is comfort in 
his attention at the table, and consolation to the home- 
sick, all-alone traveller in the way he enters your room 
after the boots in the morning, and " hopes Maastah is 
well this maaninV We have seldom heard the broad 
"a" of the local dialect sound so musically in any 
one's mouth. 

Do you imagine Joe is a myth? For a truth we 



A City Under the Sun. 57 

wish all myths of the better kind were as real and true. 
No one has engendered more of a comforting faith in 
humanity for many and many a day than this kind old 
ignorant brown man. Did he not see that A was 
lonely and try to amuse him ; that B was curious and 
grateful for enlightenment on many points, and that 
poor P. (having imprudently challenged the midday sun 
in heavy clothing and black hat) had caught a fever and 
needed nursing? Day after day, when the patient 
in his weakness and loneliness was calling for the ab- 
sent wife, the faithful old servitor found time from his 
multiform duties to wait on and watch him. Night 
after night did he not sleep within call on the floor of 
the piazza at the threshold of the sick-room? 

When you come to Jamaica you must find Joe. 

There is constant variety and surprise in the negro 
character. There was John Williams, for instance, 
whose cheerful salutation, " I come, sah ! " was as en- 
livening as his smile. But, in the language of one of 
his companions, John Williams " done a crime, sah," 
and we saw him no more. His last " I gone " was 
prophetic. We missed the cheerful, ingenious chatter 
and barbarous dialect with which he regaled us as he 
sat, or rather reclined, on the floor, with his bundle of 
papers beside him. 

Kingston in itself is a city of moderate attractions 
to one who is accustomed to tropical ways and growths. 
Of course the tourist who comes here first cannot fail 
to be impressed by the vegetation, many fruit trees 
showing their heads over the houses, and the palm 
towering everywhere with its long, branch-like leaves 



58 The New Jamaica. 

incessantly moving. He must be interested in build- 
ings very different from anything he has seen before, 
and manners and customs so strikingly novel. The 
women working the streets with hoe or shovel ; the 
lazy negro messengers, bearing whatever burdens they 
may have on their heads ; the black policeman, the 
pretty Creole girl, the wrinkled venders of fruits or 
sweets who are lingering in the cool, distinct shadow 
which some porch paints on the white, glaring street — 
all appeal to us as types of an unfamiliar life. 

Yonder comes a brown soldier with turban, tight 
jacket, and Zouave rigging aft. Near him is a coolie 
woman, who is gorgeously apparelled, her small head 
decorated with gaudy kerchief and ornaments of silver, 
her lithe body wrapped in parti-colored garments, broad 
bracelets of silver and anklets of the same upon her 
bare arms and brown ankles. 

Then one listens with interest to the various street 
cries, each one ending with " gwine by ; "which is doubt- 
less a reminder that all things in this world are but tran- 
sitory after all. A clergyman could preach quite a ser- 
mon on " gwine by." Or what a splendid chance for the 
temperance lecturer to take his text from the call that 
rouses him in the morning — " Wi' pi', chapai pi, whiskey 
bot'l gwi' by." Could you guess that, when translated, 
this means — " Wine pint, champagne pint, whiskey bot- 
tle ; going by," and that the enigma is uttered by a 
woman whose business is the collecting of bottles ? 

Hoping to find something especially characteristic, 
a small party visited the Roman Catholic church one 
evening when the bishop was announced to preach. 



A City Under the Sim. 59 

The auditorium was well filled, for though Jamaica is 
not a Catholic country there are a number of that sect. 
The cathedral is rather a fine one, and the altar, rich 
with color and brilliant with the light of many 
candles, made a fine background for the aco- 
lytes in scarlet and white, or the priests decked in the 
emblems of clerical rank. After considerable prelim- 
inary exercises, which the uninitiated stranger could not 
be expected to understand, and an antiphony which 
was more attractive, presently there was a great swing- 
ing of censers, and his grace the bishop appeared, two 
pages holding the hem of his garment. 

Soon followed the surprise of the evening: a plain, 
practical, common-sense talk, worded so that the hum- 
blest of his hearers could understand it, and full of a 
most tolerant spirit. In the course of it, while dwel- 
ling upon those virtues — especially charity — which the" 
preacher believed to be pre-eminently characteristic of 
the Catholic Church, he distinctly stated that he did 
not know how far they were carried out in other 
churches, and said that the idea of being angry with 
another because of difference of belief was irrational 
and wicked. 

In making a tour of the city's buildings and points 
of interest, one is attracted sooner or later to the mu- 
seum and library, the latter containing at present about 
twelve thousand volumes, among which are a number 
of rare old books and pamphlets upon the history, geog- 
raphy, natural history, botany, etc., etc., of Jamaica. 
Jamaica-ana is not a pretty-looking word, but that is 
what we mean. The library is rich in that sort of 



60 The New Jamaica. 

thing, and the obliging custodians of these treasures 
are very ready to assist the delver after old records. 
And what a field is here presented ! We go back to 
the days of Spanish rule, of piratic atrocity, of English 
occupancy, and of slave insurrection. Penn and Ven- 
ables, Morgan, the greatest pirate that ever lived and 
the great earthquake that destroyed Port Royal in a 
moment, all seem to be brought to our very time. 

Down in the museum is a gruesome relic that was 
dug up nearly a generation ago. It is a cage of strap 
iron, so constructed as to fit the human body, with 
bands around the neck, breast and loins, bars and stir- 
rups for the legs and feet (the last having sharp spikes 
to press into the soles of the occupant's feet), and a 
ring at the top of the structure to suspend it by. This 
awful instrument of a fiendish tyranny contained, when 
exhumed, the bones of a woman, who had without 
doubt thus satisfied the malice of an enemy, or, more 
likely still, the barbarous passion of a master to whom 
the life of a slave was a thing of less value than that 
of his dog, 

Kingston was originally built in the form of a cross. 
King Street, running north and south, crossed Queen 
Street, which is laid east and west. At their intersec- 
tion is the " parade ground," a pleasant little park 
with trees and fountain, tastefully arranged walks and 
flower gardens ; a favorite resting-place for the people 
after the heat of the day is done. King and Queen 
Streets are each sixty-six feet wide. The town has 
grown since they were laid out, to the northward and 
eastward of the Plaza. 



A City Under the Sun. 61 

•Kingston is not only the metropolis and capital of 
Jamaica, it is also the most important city in the 
British West Indies. Its population number individ- 
uals of nearly every race, English and Americans 
predominating among the whites. It was built, as be- 
fore stated, immediately after the destruction of Port 
Royal. For years the city possessed a charter and a 
seal, but surrendered them when the ancient rights of 
the island were given up in Governor Eyre's time, It 
has been visited during its history by four great fires. 
The first, in 1780, caused a loss estimated at ^"30,000. 
The second, in 1843, swept the city from the east end 
of Harbour Street to the Catholic chapel at the end of 
Duke Street. The third fire occurred in 1862, and 
burned down stores, wharves and other property valued 
at ^90,000. The fourth was in 1882, a disaster still 
fresh in the minds of residents, who lost their all there. 
Six thousand people were rendered homeless by this 
conflagration, and a large portion of the business part 
of the town burned over. A great many, even of 
those who suffered at the time, consider now that 
the fire was a blessing, since the rebuilt streets are 
finer and more substantial than they were pre- 
viously. 

The city no longer draws its water supply from the 
precarious source of wells and cisterns, as formerly. 
About 1848 a private company brought water from 
the Hope River, and to this supply has since been 
added that from the Wag Water. The pressure is 
sufficient for all fire purposes and the system of filtra- 
tion used results in a supply for drinking purposes 



62 The New Jamaica. 

that probably no tropical city in the world can excel, 
and few can equal. 

In the year 1872, the seat of government was 
removed from Spanish Town to Kingston : a move 
the wisdom of which we venture to doubt, since the 
contingencies of war, riot, or conflagration would 
first menace the larger city, interfere with the public 
business and endanger the official records. 

At the last census the population numbered be- 
tween thirty-five and forty thousand people. Several 
building societies do a large business. Banks, life and 
fire assurance companies and discount associations 
flourish. Ice is manufactured and sold at the uniform 
price of seventy cents per hundred pounds, and elec- 
tric lights are beginning to take the place of gas in 
the principal buildings and will soon supplant it in the 
streets. Street cars, drawn by mules, traverse the 
principal thoroughfares. 

Among Kingston's buildings, the finest are the 
Victoria Market, at the foot of King Street ; the hos- 
pital, on North Street ; the Colonial Bank, on Duke 
Street ; the old parish church, on King Street, near 
the Parade, in which Admiral Benbow is buried, and 
where Iralf the historical events of the last two centu- 
ries centre ; the colonial secretary's office, and that 
group of buildings between Church and East Streets, 
and the library and museum, to which reference has 
already been made elsewhere. The new building 
erected for the exhibition will be described more fully 
in a separate chapter. It is erected on the race course 
grounds, beyond the city limits. 



A City Under the Sun. 



63 



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64 The Neiv Jamaica. 

The principal approaches to Kingston are by the 
Jamaica railway and the Spanish Town road on the 
west; the Halfway-Tree road on the north side, and 
the Windward road on the east. It fronts on a fine 
harbor. The lines of the Jamaica Tramway Company 
are laid from the foot of King Street to Constant 
Spring, by way of Orange Street, the Slipe Pen Road 
and Halfway-Tree ; to the top of East Street ; to Par- 
adise Street on the Windward Road ; to the General 
Penitentiary at Rae Town ; to the Jamaica Railway, 
and to the May Pen Cemetery on the road to Span- 
ish Town ; and cars run on the lines at intervals of 
twenty minutes. 

There is a fine statue to Sir Ckarles Metcalfe stand- 
ing at the King Street entrance to the Parade. The 
Falmouth Court-house possesses a full length por- 
trait of the same estimable governor. The x only 
difficulty with these works of art is that they do not 
resemble each other. Other statues are those of the 
Hon. Edward Jordon, C. B., and Dr. Lewis Q. Bower- 
bank. In their anxiety to protect these works of art 
from the vandalism of advertisers, the authorities have 
caused notices to be placed on each one in which the 
words " Bill Stickers," appear in such large type that 
they are noticeable at quite a distance. Now it hap- 
pens that in the city of Boston, some years ago there 
was a notorious character by the name of Bill Stickers. 
The story is told that not long ago, a northern visitor 
stopped in front of Sir Charles' effigy and exclaimed, 
" I knew that Bill Stickers was dead, but I never sup- 
posed they would erect a monument over him." 




H B O U n 



S T O N 



A City Under the Sun. 65 

A word about Kingston shops, and that means 
Jamaican shops generally. A few have fixed prices ; 
the many have not yet arrived at that pitch of mer- 
cantile perfection, and the stranger should be wary 
about purchasing of a house he does not know, until 
he has learned enough of values to enable him to 
estimate for himself the worth of what he would buy. 
Clothing is generally much cheaper than in America. 
Books cost less, usually. Food supplies are cheaper, 
with the exception of meats and poultry, which are 
nearly the same. Fruits are especially low in price. 
Generally the cost of living is not so great as in the 
North in the most favorable season of the year. The 
rates for 'bus hire or car fare within city limits are 6d. 
One is besieged by beggars and small boys, who 
proffer all sorts of service for " quattie," or one-quar- 
ter of 6d. Labor wages are lower than those of the 
United States, and higher than in England. 

Kingston has about a dozen lodging houses and as 
many taverns, where board and lodging may be had 
at rates varying from 35^. to 60s. per week, or from £\ 
to £2 2s. a day. The new hotel, erectec] in the site of 
the old Myrtle Bank, on the south side of Harbour 
Street ; and Park Lodge Hotel, in Burketown, on East 
Queen Street, are among the best of Kingston's hos- 
telries. The first is American, and the second Creole 
in style. 

There are places of worship for those of Roman 
Catholic, Presbyterian,. Wesleyan, Baptist or Hebrew 
faith, besides the Church of England, which here, as 
in the mother country, assumes first rank. 



PORT ROYAL 



Around the wharves 
of Kingston are a num- 
ber of small craft, 
sloop-rigged, with great 
length of boom and no 
great height of mast. 
They are not much to 
look at, but are none 
the less loudly lauded 
by the black men 
whose business it is to 
advertise them and so- 
licit patronage. In 
spite of their dingy 
appearance these little 
vessels bear generally 
the names of royal 
personages, and we are vociferously informed that the 
Queen will take us safely, or we will find the Princess 
pleasant, or else be assured that the Marquis has first 
claim to our attention because of his bounding speed. 
We feel that the staid respectability of the Queen 
more nearly suits our requirements than the giddy 
allurements of her younger rivals, and are soon 



1 ' 


mLX 





Port Royal. 67 

following a stalwart negro who is her proud 
" cap'n." 

We know of no piece of water of equal size that 
presents as much food for meditation as this old 
harbor. Here lay the fleets of early Spanish explorers 
and navigators. Here were anchored the squadron of 
Penn and Venables, whose followers gave Jamaica to 
the English in Cromwell's day. It was here, too, that 
the most noted pirates and buccaneers the world has 
ever known, Morgan and Bartholomew, and others of 
that ilk, brought their booty after the conquest of 
Spanish galleons and of South American cities. Here 
were landed the spoils of Panama, the ransom of 
Maracaibo and Gibralta, or the gold and jewels and 
silks wrested from rich merchantmen bound to His- 
paniola. How often have the waters of Kingston 
harbor borne the sounds of unholy revelry or the hills 
around echoed the sterner notes of strife. It was 
beneath these waves that a squadron of England's 
war ships found a grave during one of those terrible 
and sudden hurricanes that devastate these latitudes. 
The fast growing coral covers them and the more 
pacific hulls of trading vessels that have from time to 
time met the same untoward fate. 

But of all the grim stories that the night winds whis- 
per, the weirdest is that of the lost city that went 
down in the twinkling of an eye, with her young men 
and maidens, old men and children : with the wine of 
the feaster half drunk and the prayer of remorse half 
said; with unfinished curse, uncompleted crime, 
arrested cruelty, in all its splendor and guilt. 



68 The New Jamaica. 

So dreaming and moralizing and balancing in our 
little boat, whose chief merit seemed to be that she for- 
got to upset when her boom trailed in the water, we 
and our freight of cameras and sketch books were 
ferried over to the old metropolis of the West Indies. 
There was little of it that we could visit, for before we 
landed we had passed the walls and streets, the spires, 
brothels and market places of the olden time. Many 
fathoms beneath our boat's keel we knew they lay, 
with sea-weed growing in the gardens and coral on 
the walls, beneath whose fretted roof the shark lurked 
in the halls where men had feasted, in the chambers 
where maidens had slept and now sleep untroubled till 
the last trump shall wake them. 

After landing and threading our way through a suc- 
cession of narrow streets, through groups of dirty 
women with smiling faces and clothes of more than 
Grecian simplicity, through companies of staring 
children, of white turbaned, baggy-trousered colored 
soldiers, or of predatory goats, we skirted the barracks 
and the high walls which enclosed the parade ground 
and entered the most interesting edifice we could find. 
It was a church, old and inviting, but not nearly as 
old as its reputation claimed for it ; for we had. been 
told with all the prompt and cheerful inaccuracy 
which is characteristic of Jamaica, that it had been 
built before the earthquake. 

Of course we know that the great Catholic church 
of old Port Royal was somewhere down at the bottom 
of the harbor, but it was possible that this smaller 
house of worship might have been also one of the 



Port Royal. 69 

ancient landmarks. It was a hope soon to be dis- 
pelled, however. Upon entering, one of the first 
things to meet the eye was a marble tablet on the wall 
at the right of the door. This tablet was framed by a 
pair of remarkable black dolphins done in some sort of 
cement, and the old-fashioned letters upon it chron- 
icled that the church was built under the direction 
of two church wardens whose names were then 
immortalized in the years 1725-26. That settled the 
question of anti-earthquake construction, but it could 
not spoil the intrinsic charm of the old-fashioned altar 
or the delightful quaintness of the great mahogany 
piece of furniture that, adorned with candles and sup- 
plemented by a winding stairway, served as an organ 
loft. 

But perhaps the most fascinating and certainly the 
saddest things in that old church, were the constantly 
recurring mural tablets recording the virtues of the 
many dead of the English communion, whose last 
breaths had been drawn far away from home. Some- 
times sacred to the memory of one, sometimes of an 
entire crew ; this one erected by the affection of 
a sister, and that by the piety of a comrade ; four- 
fifths told of victims to that dreaded scourge, yellow 
fever. Judging by these records it would seem that 
in the old days Port Royal was a graveyard for the 
British naval officers and seamen, a very plague spot 
where the hardiest laid down his life. 

Well, facts are about the last things that the world 
learns, and a surface indication of something, especially 
if that something is an unpleasant one, will generally 



j o The New Jamaica. 

usurp the place of valuable evidence. The ancient 
metropolis was undoubtedly the port where many of 
Great Britain's sailors were permanently discharged — 
were mustered out of the service by that grim old 
officer, death. But it was also true that for years 
Great Britain had no other marine hospital in that part 
of the world than the one at Port Royal, so that 
officers and men from infected ports and vessels in 
South America, Central America and the Antilles, 
were all brought to Jamaica to die. 

Vessels that had never visited Jamaica sent their 
crews thither by other vessels, and the result 
was an importation of disease that in most tropical 
countries would have proved far more disastrous to 
the country at large. Still, these tablets shock the 
visitor. 

Though we know that things are changed now, and 
that the sanitary conditions of Port Royal are so 
greatly improved that there is hardly a possibility of 
a return to the old scourge, yet one cannot avoid a 
feeling of chill and fear almost, as he sees these dread- 
ful reminders of the reign of the yellow death, three 
and four deep, covering almost the entire wall space of 
this house of worship. 

There was a woman in the church cleaning it, and 
with her a little round-faced, big-eyed, bandy-legged 
girl of about two or three years, who looked at us sol- 
emnly, and then pattered away over the tiled floor to 
the protection of her mother. 

When we left this place we went to the lookout, and 
getting from the negress in charge of the premises a 



Port Royal. 



7i 



statement that, " De hofficer in chaage ain' heah, saah, 
but I doan' t'ink he objec' to you goin' up," we as- 
cended, taking care to leave the camera below, but 
smuggling a sketch book. The view from the top of 
that tower was well worth sketching. There were 
not only the military works of Port Royal, and the 




more or less modern houses that we tried in vain to 
think might cover the six thousand population that is 
claimed for this ancient town, but beyond them we 
could also see the forts and harbor defences, the town 
of Kingston across the bay, and the velvet green moun- 
tains, with their violet shadows, always capped with 
clouds, beyond them. After a visit to the beach, and 
the exploration of one or two of the older corners 



7 2 



The JSFew Jamaica. 



of the town, we found that we had reached our 
time limit, and must find our way again to the 
ferry. 

This time another member of the royal family took 
us in. Our Charon was quite a youth, and his face 
was so utterly expressionless that we doubted whether 
a cyclone or an earthquake could ever put life into it. 
But he managed to get us safely across, though the 
wind blew and the waters rose so that our vessel became 
a sort of bath-tub where we enjoyed (?) a perpetual 
douche, without the luxury of towels. Nor were we 
the only passengers. On the contrary, our boat carried 
a dozen voyagers of various shades of black and 
brown, most of whom showed unmistakable signs of 
fright before we arrived safely at the Kingston 
wharf. 

The fact that two boats were overset in the blow 
that afternoon, and one poor fellow drowned, gave the 
last part of our visit to Jamaica's old metropolis some- 
thing of the dignity of an adventure. 




ALONG THE RAILWAY. 



We are accustomed 
to railways that rush 
four-in-hand along 
northern river banks, or 
burrow shrieking into 
the mountain sides, or 
span canons, or traverse 
the almost limitless 
plains where the sage 
and the chaparral flour- 
ish. We climb sierras 
that way now, cross val- 
leys and watercourses, 
explore wildernesses, and there 
seems nothing strange or unnat- 
ural in seeing the brightest sky stained by 
the locomotive smoke rings, or hearing the 
deepest solitude disturbed by its strident 
voice. 

But here is a railway that pursues the 
even tenor of its way between groves of mangoes, cac- 
tus hedges, logwood copses and banana walks ; steals 
into vistas framed by great silk cotton trees and winds 
by the edge of streams over which the cocoanuts lean 




74. The New Jamaica. 

and beside which the pineapples grow. It mounts 
foot by foot to the higher island lev.els, around the 
heads of glens where the strange trees stand deep in 
ferns, and crowned with bright blossoms and gay moss 
streamers. 

There is nothing in the world that indicates prog- 
ress in industrial matters more than a successful rail- 
way. Every puff of an engine that is drawing its 
share of a steady output of produce, talks in a lan- 
guage that is intelligible to the dullest man. In the 
catechism of mechanics the question, "'What is the 
chief end of a railway?" should be answered thus: 
" The chief end of a railway is to develop the country 
through which it passes ; to make land valuable ; 
increase commerce, and contrive, by such honest 
means, to afford a dividend." 

At the Kingston station one is struck with the 
unique character of the place and the people ; espe- 
cially the latter. The cars drawn up to the platform, 
are built upon the same pattern as those of any 
English railway. They are divided into transverse 
apartments, which are entered from the side, having no 
connection with each other. The guards here are 
polite colored men, in a military-looking uniform. In 
place of the various phases of British or American life, 
we find a heterogeneous assortment of humanity with 
greater contrasts of color, character, creed and cos- 
tume. 

The Creole of position with his visiting cousin from 
Europe, or the American continent, takes his place in 
a first-class carriage. There is apt to be a pretty girl 



Along the Railway. yr 

or two in his party, but they are for the most part, too 
demure to notice the stranger who is trying to use his 
eyes to the best advantage. There are colored peo- 
ple, black people, white people ; there are faces that 
show Castilian origin, others of a Caledonian cast, 
many that are browned by more than exposure to a 
tropic sun. 

Here is the bare-armed, braceletted, long-haired, 
coolie woman, with her babe partly wrapped in the 
gaudy shawl that is thrown half around the mother's 
head, half over her shoulder. Her wealth is apparent 
to all eyes, for she carries it where all may see, dis- 
played upon wrists, forehead, breast, ankles ; in fact 
anywhere that there is a chance to place a hoop or a 
bangle. Then there are others : soldiers, dressed in 
white and red uniforms ; negro market women, bundle 
topped ; newsboys and porters. These all speak a 
various language, in which they have a Babel profi- 
ciency. It pretends to be English ; it sounds as 
though " Jabberwocky " had found a local habitation. 

We do not believe there is a case on record where 
the stranger has been able at once to understand the 
English of the Jamaican of the lower class. 

The train-shed into which the station building 
proper opens is about three hundred feet long, and 
wide enough to admit several trains abreast. Beyond 
this structure are the shops, engine houses, etc. 

After passing the purlieus of the city, among the 
first scenes to attract attention are the extensive stock 
yards of Cumberland Pen, one of the large properties 
of the island, where great herds of horses and cattiv 



76 The New Jamaica. 

are bred and grazed. Cumberland Pen embraces a 
good race-course, and its turf events are always looked 
forward to with considerable interest, by both Creoles 
and aliens. 

The grazing pastures as seen from the railway, 
present a clean, well-trimmed appearance. As high as 
a cow can reach the leaves of the mangoes are close 
cropped as though by a machine. One could sight 
along the under sides of them as along the level of a 
ceiling. Beneath, the grass is as smoothly trimmed. 
Cows, and indeed all hoof-kind, are great conservers of 
park and lawn. At another place, where the road 
crosses some little stream or canal, a widening pool by 
the wayside is literally full of horses, playing or stand- 
ing shoulder deep, enjoying that advantage gained 
over the flies. So we pass from point to point of 
interest, here stopping at some way station and anon 
skirting a sugar plantation beyond whose levels of 
corn green cane the picturesque buildings, mills and 
aqueducts cluster, and along whose borders the rows 
of bamboos stand sentinel. 

There is something which strikes one with surprise 
in every phase of Jamaican industry, and this element 
is not wanting here. As the water comes from the 
aqueduct, it is distributed in channels or trenches, and 
we have seen a number of women sitting by the side 
of one of these little canals, throwing the water with 
their hands upon the cane rows. At one point, a very 
fine aqueduct, built of stone and supported on num- 
berless arches, crosses the railway. It is picturesquely 
draped with moss vines and ferns. The water it con- 



Along the Railw 



'ax- 



il 



ducts is drawn from the Rio Cobre, the beautiful river 
that waters the plain of St. Catherine. 




Hal way between Kingston and Spanish Town we 

He ifhT'Vn thS harb ° r head a " d the d -tant 

"" n hlre ";' X V ° r ' 3S the old bo °>- call them, 
tiellshire Hills. 

One is continually struck with the indications of 
natural richness and fertility of the country, and 
the ht le advantage that is taken of these means 
of wealth by the inhabitants. It is probablv true 
that the country is underpopulated. It is certainly 
a fact that every mile of it calls loudlv for more 
mtelhgent methods of labor, and more earnest ourpose 



j& The New Jamaica. 

in utilizing the natural resources. On the lower end 
of the line, the estates and fruit cultivations are made 
more valuable by the Rio Cobre canal, a public work 
accomplished several years ago, which has added 
thousands of pounds in value to the lands through 
which its irrigating stream passes. But beyond this 
there seems to be very little done to add to those 
natural gifts of soil and climate which we have more 
than once dwelt upon. From the very beginning to 
the conclusion of planting and gathering, the Jamai- 
can cultivator rests in the knowledge that it would be 
a difficult matter to starve him out. One potent 
reason for this apparent apathy is a real want of 
capital. The man who clears his woodland with 
machete and fire, may be alive to the value of stump 
pulling machinery yet find it beyond his means. But 
many of the smaller cultivators are perfectly content 
to work according to old methods. Their oranges, 
they say, are the best in the world ; why seek by 
grafting or budding, to improve them ? Acres run to 
waste, and their owners wonder that foreigners doubt 
that they are making the most of their opportunities. 
Well, perhaps they are right. Why should they not 
rest, since nature is so willing to assume all the re- 
sponsibility of crops and harvests ? 

Among the various products which the Jamaica 
Railway has made marketable one of the most valuable 
is logwood. At many of the stations we see great 
piles of the sticks, or of crooked roots, ready for ship- 
ment. Car after car passes us, loaded with this same 
wealth. The logwood grows wild, thousands of acres 



Along the Railway. 



79 



of it cover the hill-slopes. All of this might be han- 
dled, transported, marketed, to greater advantage if 
right machinery were introduced. We have spoken 
of stump pullers, such as are used in the United 
States for similar work. As the custom now is to ship 
not only the trunks but the roots of the logwood, the 
gain of grubbing in a more systematic, nineteenth 
century way would be enormous. Or, supposing the 




root to be out of the ground, proper appliances for 
crushing it would reduce its bulk, and practically 
increase the carrying capacity of every car engaged in 
shipping it by just so much. Or, better still, by the 
investment of capital in a properly arranged plant for 



8o 



The New Jamaica. 



extracting the dye from the logwood before it is 
shipped, the industry would without question receive 
an enormous impetus. What we wish to point out is 
that here is an almost unworked field for the investor, 
whose predilection for agriculture, fruit growing or 
manufacture could be indulged in the security which a 
well-equipped, firmly-established railroad affords. 

After passing Spanish Town and May Pen, with its 
fine iron bridge and View of the dry bed of a river 
that has found a subterranean channel, we soon strike 




Old Manor House at Ewarton. 



a perceptible up grade and gradually rise to higher 
levels, and towards Porus, the present terminus of one 
section of the road. 



Along the Railway. 81 

There are now two main sections, the junction 
being at Spanish Town. At the end of one is Porus, 
at the other Ewarton. Both of these towns are in the 
county of Middlesex, the first in the parish of Man- 
chester and the other in St. Catherine. Beyond Porus 
it is proposed to extend the line, and in fact, the 
addition is now being built through the delightful hill 
country north of Mandeville, past Shooters' Mountain, 
and toward the region of Cornwall County, known as 
the Cockpit country, from its deep sink holes and 
wild, cavernous character. The lines run by Balaclava, 
and across the Black River. Here some of the most 
difficult engineering work of the road is being accom- 
plished. Through Vauxhall and Ipswich the road 
will extend to the Great River, and along that stream 
to the neighborhood of the Lethe estate and thence 
to Montego Bay, thus opening up one of the 
pleasantest as well as one of the richest parts of the 
island. 

The other section, that which now terminates at 
Ewarton, will branch from Bog Walk, cross the 
mountains east of St. Thomas-in-the-vale, and follow 
the course of the famed Rio d'Oro, where the Span- 
iards were supposed to have had the secret of the 
Indian gold mine ; a tradition not unlikely to be well 
founded, as the region gives fair indication of gold. 
From the Rio d'Oro, the railway will run through the 
lower part of St. Mary's to the Flint River, continue 
to follow that stream to its junction with the AVag 
Water, and following that, reach the coast at An- 
notto Bay, going thence eastward up the coast to 



82 The New Jamaica. 

Port Antonio. The projection of a third line 
to cross Trelawney and St. James, is also spoken 
of. 

It was in the year 1843 tnat tne Jamaica Railway 
Company was incorporated. The line was opened for 
traffic in November of that year. It was at first only 
operated as far as " The Angels," near Spanish Town, 
a distance of fourteen miles from Kingston, at a cost 
of £222,250. It had but one track. From then to 
1867 work was virtually at a standstill. Then an 
extension from Spanish Town to old Harbour Market 
was carried through at a cost of £60,000, being 
opened to the public in July, 1869. 

Since 1867 the history of the road may not be unin- 
teresting, showing as it does the gradual reception of 
a new idea, the final appreciation of business energy, 
and the success which attends intelligent manage- 
ment. 

After the opening of the extension the business of 
the company increased gradually, till in 1875, its 
revenue reached the sum of £24,200, a gain of £13,- 
478 in six years. In 'y/, Sir Anthony Musgrave, as 
stated in a previous chapter, interested himself in the 
affairs of the railway, entered into negotiations with 
the company and effected the purchase of the road by 
the government. At this time the capital represented 
was £267,250. 

The permanent way was relaid and ballasted, water 
ways and conduits were opened to drain those parts 
of the road which were apt to be submerged, twenty- 
eight bridges were built and general improvements 



Along the Railway 



83 



,-C-i 



y^j 



J A 




-%^ r M ^ r A ; 




84 The New Jamaica. 

carried on all along the line. What with stations, 
walls, culverts and numerous other additions and 
repairs the cost amounted to £107,260. The cost, 
including purchase, was £201,192. 

The first year's work after the government purchase 
returned a net profit of ,£5,621. The railway con- 
tinued after this to more than pay its expenses. 

The next move was the extension to Porus, in 
Manchester, the present (1890) terminus. On the 2d 
of May, 1885, the extension was open to traffic at a 
cost of £"280,924, loans being raised to provide the 
means for expenditure. It was said that the contract- 
ors, Messrs. Reid and McKay, made nothing by their 
enterprise, and an award of £13,731 was made to 
them by the arbitrators. The raising of a further loan 
of £70,000 was authorized by Law 16 of 1887 for pro- 
posed extensions, surveys and repairs. A loan of 
£26,000 was raised and an extension through Annotto 
Bay, from Bog Walk to Port Antonio, was reported 
upon in September 1888. About the same time some 
American capitalists, headed by Mr. Frederick Wes- 
son, made an offer for the road. It was sold to them 
for £"100,000 cash, and £"700,000 secured by second 
mortgage bonds on the security of the railway at four 
per cent, interest.. The company pledged itself to 
extend the line as projected, and was empowered to 
issue bonds to the extent of £"320,000, and to make 
further issues of £200,-000 on the completion of each 
twenty-five miles of extension, till the full amount of 
£"1,500,000 is reached. The transfer of the line was 
made in January 4, 1890, since which time, under the 



Along the Railway. 



85 



general management of Mr. R. B. Campbell, the road 
has continued to give satisfaction to the public as well 
as to its owners. 




SANTIAGO DE LA VEGA. 



Familiarity with the history of Jamaica means 
intimacy with Spanish Town, which for over three 
centuries and a half was the capital city of the island. 
Seville, Melilla, Oristan, were one after another aban- 
doned by the Spaniards, who soon founded this city, 
whose salubrious climate, pleasant surroundings and 
defensible position seemed to point to its site as the 
natural one for the seat of government. This was 
Columbus' dukedom ; this the city of which D'Oyley 
was left in charge after the English conquest, the 
place of retirement for the aristocracy of Port Royal, 
the scene of social triumphs, of legislative strife, the 
site of Jamaica's finest buildings, now going into 
decay for want of occupancy and proper care. 

Through the hospitality of the custos of St. Cather- 
ine's parish we were first introduced to the attractions 
of this quaint old capital, and in telling of its features 
of interest where can we better begin than with Rod- 
ney? Admiral Lord Rodney, the hero of 1781, the 
defender of Jamaica against the French under Count 
de Grasse, lives forever in marble under a cupola over- 
looking the main square of Spanish Town. John 
Bacon, who apparently had a colonial contract to fill 
the island with evidences of his art, bestowed upon 



Santiago de la Vega. 87 

the statue of Rodney his ripest skill. For a century it 
has kept watch and ward over the affairs of Spanish 
Town till it grew to have a more than educational 
significance. People spoke of it as a person, and 
regarded it as a tutelary deity. More than all, they 
had affection for it. 

Judge, then, what the feeling of Spanish Town 
must have been when Rodney was removed to 
Kingston, and set up in the market-place there with 
his face to the sea. There was mourning. Houses were 
hung with black. A mock funeral was attended by 
numbers of people, and a coffin containing the effigy of 
the lost admiral was placed in the empty cupola. Seri- 
ously, the authorities feared a riot. They had taken 
away the government ; they had destroyed the prestige 
of the place ; they had robbed it of its business ; and 
now they had multiplied injury and insult by carrying 
off Rodney. There, Spanish Town drew the line. It 
refused to be parted from its idol. There is some- 
thing delicious in this robust epic ; the rape of the 
statue, the protest, struggle, restoration and triumph 
which followed. Now, the admiral stands once more 
on his own pedestal, in a costume borrowed from 
Grecian mythology, and admirably adapted to a warm 
climate, his captured cannon at his feet, and the 
garden-centred square of Spanish Town under his 
eagle eye. 

And this is what he sees. A great empty residence, 
whose wide doors no longer admit the state, beauty 
and fashion of a capital ; whose great, empty ball- 
room, where princes of the blood have been enter- 



88 The New Jamaica. 

tained, is empty ; whose banqueting hall is melancholy. 
There are the House of Assembly rooms devoted to 
baser uses; the court-house and the various offices all 
pleading their loss of importance. Do not think from 




this that Santiago de la Vega is desolate, though 
abandoned by the government for less lordly accom- 
modations and business conveniences in Kingston. 
We visited the churches and chapels, and found that 
they were attended by good congregations. We took 
our places with the worshippers at the Cathedral 
Church, which stands on the foundations of the old 
Spanish Red Cross Church of St. Peter, and if the 
mural decorations, crests and monuments of the in- 
terior of that interesting place shared the attention 



Santiago de la Vega. 89 

which should have been given solely to the prayer 
book and the sermon, let art and antiquity divide the 
blame. Here are buried former governors and great 
men. The arms of Effingham, and the sweet features 
of the Countess of Elgin were texts in themselves. 

Spanish Town possesses a good almshouse, hospital, 
market, record office and constabulary depot. Its 
streets are well paved and clean ; its houses attrac- 
tive, though not different from those of most other 
West India towns. Its population numbers 5,689. It 
is situated six miles from the harbor and thirteen 
miles from Kingston, on the banks of the Rio Cobre, 
a beautiful stream of considerable volume, the water 
from which supplies the irrigation canal which en- 
riches a great many hundred acres in St. Catherine's. 

There are in Spanish Town several lodging-houses ; 
and lately a hotel company has undertaken the work 
of providing lodging and entertainment at the Hotel 
Rio Cobre, just outside of the town. This house will 
accommodate twenty-five to -fifty guests, and aims to 
give Creole comfort and good fare, with American man- 
agement. The proximity of the beautiful Rio Cobre 
is a guarantee that the sojourner will neither lack for 
active sport or poetic pabulum. 

We enjoyed several drives in the good roads about 
Spanish Town. One of these led us to the Rio Cobre 
dam and beginning of the irrigation canal. The dam 
is a long, depressed slant, over which the water flows 
with a continuous ripple. The flood of the canal finds 
its way by pleasant banks, under picturesque bridges 
and beneath long, even rows of over-bending cocoanut 



9° 



The New Jamaica. 



trees to smaller channels, until, at last, its ramifications 
reach through grazing pens, fruit cultivations and 
sugar estates, fertilizing and enriching all that section 
of country. 




A little way beyond the dam we were conducted 
through a field, where a group of colored people vainly 
tried to dissuade us from advancing, by stories of ticks 
in the grass and impassable swamps. Beyond this we 
saw traces of an ancient avenue of tall trees, and the 
evidences of something more than negro occupancy. 
Then we came upon what seemed to be a ruin, but so 
overgrown with trees and underbrush that it was nec- 
essary to send a man ahead with a machete before we 



Santiago de la Vega. 91 

could advance. The ruin is said to be that of the 
house of the last Spanish governor of the island, who 
fled from here when the island was taken by Penn 
and Venables in Great Cromwell's time. It may 
easily be true. There is every evidence of antiquity 
in the trees and the weather-eaten stones of the 
house walls, now netted by the interlacing roots of a 
century-old fig-tree that overrides them. Who knows 
what treasure may underlie the rubbish that chokes 
the doorways and cumbers the wall gaps ? 

Another pleasant drive from Spanish Town is the one 
which skirts the salt ponds and goes out to Port Hen- 
derson. On the way thither we have a fine view of 
the Healthshire hills on the right, till that is shut off 
by the nearer Salt Pond hill. Port Henderson is the 
natural landing-place for Spanish Town. It is nearly 
opposite Port Royal, and diagonally across from 
Kingston. There is a fine view of the harbor and the 
hills beyond. The Constant Spring Hotel, the bar- 
racks at New Castle, the houses that dot the mountain 
side here and there, and, still further away, the cloudy 
summit of the Blue Mountain peak, all can be enjoyed 
from Port Henderson. There are very few houses 
here, but a small garrison is quartered on the spot and 
visitors often stop to enjoy the mineral bath, a natural 
rocky spring housed over. The neighborhood is full 
of deep caves. Into one or two we Went a little way, 
but others are so deep that they give back no echo 
to tell what becomes of the stone thrown into the 
depths. In one of these caverns tradition says that 
Morgan the buccaneer concealed both men and booty 



9 2 



The New Jamaica. 



at a time when it was not convenient to have either 
exposed too freely for the public view. 

Near Port Henderson is the Battery of the Apostles, 
named evidently by some one who did not know how 
many apostles there were ; or perhaps, one of these 
apostles may have burst at some time. In late years 
the defences of Apostles' Battery have been materially 
strengthened, and magazines and armament added. 
Four miles from Port Henderson are the defences of 
Passage fort, the landing-place of the English con- 
querors, at the mouth of the Rio Cobre. Port Royal 
on one side of the harbor entrance and the Apostles' 
Battery on the other, are, however, considered the 
true and important defences to both the old and the 
present capital. At Green Bay is the quarantine sta- 
tion. Back of the Apostles is a lookout known as 
" Rodney's," where the great admiral used to watch 
for the French. Near here is also the tomb of Lewis 
Galdy, who was swallowed by the great Port Royal 
earthquake and cast up again alive. He must have 
been indeed an unpalatable morsel if both the earth 
and the sea rejected him. 




HALF-WAY TREE AND CONSTANT SPRING. 




ABOUT a mile and a half from 
Kingston, northeast of the race- 
course, are the " Up-park-camp " 
barracks* Here are the head- 
quarters of the West Indian regi- 
ment stationed, with the brigade 
and other military offices. The 
place contains good barracks, 
parade ground, swimming bath, 
hospital, and everything to make 
camp life as endurable as possible. The location is 
health giving and cool and the views fine. The place 
is well worth a visit. 

From Kingston, past the race-course and exhibition 
buildings, the main road, upon which the tram cars 
run, leads out to Half-way Tree. This highway is 
dotted with residences, many of them occupying the 
site of former pens, the names of which they still 
retain. Here are trim white dwellings, with jalousied 
verandas, high porches, and chimneyless roofs, that 
slant on four sides instead of being built with vertical 
ends, like the ordinary gable roof of the North. 
Around the houcses grow broad leaved century plants, 
segregated branches of palms, great blazing masses of 



94 The New Jamaica. 

scarlet or yellow bloom on flowering shrubs and trees, 
clusters of deep-hued mango foliage and groups of 
tree ferns or beds of glowing blossoms. The only 
visible drawback to these residences is the cloud of 
dust that is apt to roll in from the road. The Half- 
way Tree road is well kept and much travelled. It is 
the beginning of the great highway that crosses the 
island, passing Constant Spring, crossing Stony Hill, 
traversing the mountains of the interior, following the 
Wag Water past Castleton Gardens and joining the 
coast road at Annotto Bay. 

At any part it is well travelled, but on the lower end 
of the road, especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays, 
which are market days, the passing peasantry become 
a multitude, a tide that flows in the morning and ebbs 
again at evening. 

The women are numerically much better repre- 
sented in' this throng than the men. Women are the 
workers among the blacks in the neighborhood of 
Kingston. They carry the coal on the wharves, load 
and unload vessels, drive donkeys and mules with 
produce, break stone on the road, carry stone and 
other building material for house builders, wash, bake, 
dig in the fields, and, in fine, perform four-fifths of the 
labor that one sees done. If the men work they keep 
the evidences out of sight with most unaccountable 
modesty. These women are generally strongly built, 
short and energetic. One or two garments, well girded 
up, suffice them for decency. Their tread is a firm 
long glide, with a great deal of motion as far up as the 
hips, a side to side swing below the waist and above 



Half-way Tree and Constant Spring. 



95 



i l 

1% ? 







96 The New Jamaica. 

that absolute steadiness and rigidity, so that the heavy- 
burden on the head is not disturbed nor endangered. 
They will chase each other, quarrel, jump aside for a 
passing horse or vehicle and never upset or spill these 
burdens. They are a merry lot, with as little knowl- 
edge of physical pain or fatigue as strong young cattle. 
The Jamaican male peasant may look morose, but the 
women are always ready to break out into a smile. 
Among this crowd are donkeys with panniers, mules 
and horses laden with all manner of freight, people in 
vehicles and on horseback going at as good a pace as 
though they had a clear road. The pedestrians 
(always in the road, as there is no pretence of a side- 
walk) scatter, make way, close in again ; all rapidly 
moving in one direction, keeping the same swift, 
steady gait that some of them have used for twelve or 
fifteen miles over the mountains. One of them will 
be glad to get a shilling for a load heavy enough for a 
donkey, which she has " toted " ten miles to market. 

Meanwhile the dust envelopes everything; the grass 
by the wayside and the leaves of the mangoes and 
cotton trees are gray with it. It follows in an eddy 
behind the street car that trundles by, drawn by its 
team of galloping mules, and settles on the dusky 
throng that set it in motion. 

Some day, somebody should write, if not an epic, at 
least an ode, to the mango vender. She it is who sup- 
plies the great staple of diet, and when the stock in 
trade is becoming unsalable she prevents waste by 
eating it herself. Seated by the roadside she devours 
mangoes; walking along the road she eats them ; talk- 



Half-way Tree and Constant Spring 



97 



ing, bargaining, scolding, laughing — the ever ready 
mango fills every pause. 

At the village of Half-way Tree, three miles from 
Kingston, there is a cluster of houses on a cross road ; 
a church and burying ground, old and quaint, and a 
few shops. At a little distance are several fine resi- 
dences and among them the King's House, or Guber- 
natorial mansion, now occupied by his Excellency, Sir 
Henry Arthur Blake, K. C. M. G. This is a large and 
attractive dwelling built after the style of the coun- 
try, with upper and lower verandas shaded by jal- 
ousies, entirely enclosing it. The lawn is beautifully 
adorned with shrubbery, and handsome trees shade it. 
To Lady Blake's rare taste is due much of the floral 
wealth that charms the visitor to King's House. There 
are also, in the neighborhood, the homes of several of 
the higher government officials. Near the cross road 




98 The Neiv Jamaica. 

is situated the market building, and there are also a 
court-house or girls' orphanage asylum and school near 
by. The church referred to above is one which was 
built in the reign of Queen Anne, and has been in 
recent years repaired and renovated. Its floor is 
paved with slabs inscribed with the names and crests 
of many departed worthies. Sir Nicholas Lawes, once 
governor of the island, is buried there. In this church, 
Livingstone, signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
is said to have been married, and in the churchyard 
reposes all that is mortal of Colonel Harrison, grand 
uncle of the present (1889) President of the United 
States. Colonel Harrison represented the United 
States Government in Jamaica for a number of years. 
Upon the 30th of May last, a few Americans, headed 
by Mr. Estes, their consul, engaged in a simple decor- 
ation day service over his grave. 

The tram cars, which run from Kingston to Half- 
way Tree with a headway of twenty minutes, start 
from the latter place to Constant Spring every half 
hour. This is another three-mile drive along a road 
which becomes cooler and pleasanter at every step. 
The open roadway ahead and the glimpses through 
gaps in the foliage reveal more and more of the 
mountains, — those mountains of which Columbus' 
crumpled bit of paper was at once a description and a 
parody. Ravines that are mere lines near the sum- 
mits and widen into valleys as they approach the 
plain, are the recipients for streams from other ravines. 
Add to this effect the winding, irregular shape of a 
range of hills and the whole has a singular crinkled 



Half-way Tree and Constant Spring. 99 

appearance. But the warm, rich tones that sweep 
across their under coloring of blues and grays, com- 
bined with these convolute forms, give effects that are 
often startlingly beautiful to the Jamaica Mountains. 
The other road from Half-way Tree, going to the 
east and north, leads to Gordon Town, about six miles 
distant. There is a daily stage from Kingston to 
Gordon Town. It is a small village, having little of 
note about it. But from there one may proceed on 
horseback (a good livery establishment is there) to 
Newcastle, well up on a Blue Mountain spur, where 
the white troops are stationed. This is 3,974 feet 
above the sea. Between Gordon Town and New- 
castle is Craigton, the mountain home of Governor 
and Lady Blake. In this vicinity are also mineral 
springs at a place called Silver Spring. There are two 
or three points of interest on the road to Gordon 
Town. Near this place is quite a large coolie settle- 
ment, where these gentle East Indian laborers live in 
something of the fashion of their eastern home. Here 
the habits of India (at least of its laboring castes) may 
be studied as well as on the banks of the Ganges "or 
the Indus. They keep the same distinctions in 
costume for age or rank that obtain in Calcutta. 
They are, many of them, skilful artisans, and the 
visitor may see the necklace or other ornament fash- 
ioned from the handful of silver pieces he furnishes 
for the purpose " while he waits." Intellectually we 
need not say where the coolie stands in comparison to 
the negro. He belongs to a darker branch of the 
Caucasian race, his civilization one of the oldest in the 



ioo The New Jamaica. 

world, and though of a lower caste in that race yet far 
above the African in development. It is amusing to 
notice that the negro looks down on the coolie as upon 
an inferior. 

Between Gordon Town and Half-way Tree are the 
Hope Gardens, which will be elsewhere described, and 
the Hope high school for boys, a large and somewhat 
imposing building, erected on the government ground. 
Near here are also the lead works and reservoirs of the 
Kingston and Liguanea water works. 

These are the principal roads and villages in the 
parish of St. Andrews. At Constant Spring, which is 
the terminus of the tram car line, there are the water 
works, built when the Wag was taken to supplement 
the Hope supply in providing Kingston with water. 
These works are called the Kingston and Liguanea 
water works. Constant Spring also boasts a great 
hotel, the largest building of its class that Jamaica has 
ever known. Its centre and two wings contain ample 
accommodation for several hundred guests. Its 
cuisine is presided over by a competent French chef, 
its tables are well supplied and well served, and the 
whole place is under excellent (American) manage- 
ment. It is but just to say that this hotel was the 
first building in Jamaica where electric lights were 
used. Its charges compare favorably with those of 
other hotels and lodging-houses in the island. We 
have elsewhere given the ordinary rates of board and 
lodging. 



STONY HILL AND CASTLETON. 



IT is a rare drive for a 
May morning from Con- 
stant Spring to Castleton. 
The heat and glare and 
dust, which annoy the 
traveller on the half-way 
tree section of the road, 
disappear entirely when 
we have passed Constant 
Spring. The air is fresher, 
the fields and foliage 
greener, the light pleas- 
anter than on the lower 
ground. We have reached 
the limits of the plain, and 
before us rise the crumpled, irregular hills that slope 
back towards the Wag Water, or rise, fold and con- 
volute fold on ridge and spur, till far in the distance 
they reach the highest island altitude of over seven 
thousand feet, in the Blue Mountain peak. 

If there is anything calculated to make a man glad 
he is alive, it is to mount a good horse on such a 
morning as Jamaica knows in May, before " the rains " 
have made up their minds to restore the diluvian 




102 The New Jamaica. 

epoch, and commence the ascent of that picturesque 
pile of geology and verdure known as Stony Hill. 
There are a few grazing cattle in the fields, a house or 
two by the wayside, a side path that invites one — with 
that seductive way that shady side paths have — to 
turn astray from his road. After that a sharp gallop 
over a tolerably level piece of good road brings one 
to the Liguanea water-works, at the foot of the hill. 
Here an well-fashioned stone aqueduct conducts the 
water of the " Wag " into a reservoir, from which the 
distant city is partly supplied with the fresh, pure 
water, which is one of its chiefest blessings. 

From this picturesque structure the way leads by 
small banana cultivations, and under the shade of the 
ubiquitous mango trees, where the temperature is 
delightfully cool and fresh, and the light very restful 
to the eye, as it is transmitted through the broad, 
bright leaves of the banana plants. Still rising, we 
reach a narrow place, where, by engineering skill, 
the good road has been cut and walled up to the 
mountain side, and protected by a substantial rail, so 
that the unwary rider may not find his descent of 
Stony Hill more rapid than comfort actually demands. 

From this turn the first extensive view greets us. 
The mountains of the lower range, or Ramshorn 
Ridge, stretch away to the right. In the middle of 
the picture is a single hill, that wraps its drapery of 
verdure about it in solitary dignity ; between these 
two are the upper end of the Liguanea Plain and dis- 
tant Mona Vale % with its fresh and abundant green 
marking the limit of the sugar-cane fields ; to the right 



Stony Hill and Castleton. 103 

lies the greater part of the plain and the sea. There, 
eight miles away is Kingston ; further still, the line of 
the palisades, the light-house and the vessels, that 
look like floating specks on the blue expanse of the 
distant ocean. Further up Stony Hill, we find, at a 




sharp turn, teams to pass (which we do. by following 
the law of the land, and turning to the left), and sud- 
den glimpses of the valley, seen through, or over, the 
tops of orchid-ridden trees. 

Near the top of Stony Hill is a little settlement, a 
few cabins and stores, and here a road to the left 
leads to the grounds of the reformatory, large build- 
ings originally used as barracks, but now the home of 



104 The New Jamaica. 

a little army of bad boys, who wear their uniform of 
disgrace with nonchalant composure, and seem to be 
altogether better cared for, and better fed, and cleaner 
than boys of the same class who have not yet been put 
under the government's fostering care. The houses of 
the reformatory are large and airy, built of white stone, 
and commanding a fine view of the plains and coast 
below. The superintendent denies that his boys are 
bad boys — " only a little wild and unruly," he says. 

The mists are still clinging to the distant ravines 
and glens, as we ride along the ridge overlooking the 
vale where the Wag Water flows. And what a sight it 
is ! Here are cane fields ; there, acres of tobacco ; 
again, gardens full of all the fruit and vegetable prod- 
uce dear to the native Creole palate. Groves of cocoa- 
nut; miles of plantain and banana; hillsides covered 
with ferns; houses, part wattled and part daubed with 
colored clay ; red flowers of the orchid, glowing like 
spots of flame from the cottonwood branches ; women 
striding along under their burdens, destined for the 
market in Kingston ; donkeys, carts — everything, in 
fine, that can occur to one as being desirable to enliven 
or beautify a tropical landscape on a May morning. 

At several points are sharp turns, where the road fol- 
lows the dip of some almost vertical ravines. There 
is an ancient and massive look about the safeguard 
walls of these places ; but the most picturesque, quaint 
and solid looking piece of engineering on the road is 
where a well buttressed bridge spans the Wag Water 
lock at the head of the water-work system. From it 
the view of red roofed houses, nestled among the liv- 



Stony Hill and Castleton, 105 

ing green, the flashing water, the never ceasing variety 
of luxuriant bloom on the hillsides and by the river 
banks, combine to satisfy the sense, and still to excite 
the imagination. 

" It is a far call " to Castleton, but the way seems 
short by a road where the spaces from milestone to 
milestone are packed with interest and paved with 
beauty. 

And what is Castleton ? Far in the interior of the 
island, occupying a central position between the north 
and the south coast, on the road that runs from King- 
ston to Annotto Bay, nineteen miles from the former 
place, nature made a garden with all the advantages 
of loveliness and fertility that a rich valley and a 
beautiful stream could combine to furnish. Its slopes 
were blessed with a sufficient and even rainfall (109.35 
inches annually) ; its soil was rich and deep, its cli- 
mate never cold, nor ever uncomfortably hot, the 
mean temperature being 74. 5 Far. That people 
named this spot of ground Castleton and not Eden, 
proved them inapt at drawing parallels. 

On such a basis of natural advantages and beauty 
the government built, wisely, a fairy garden, a sort of 
tropical Kew, where all the strange and useful plants 
of other warm countries might be fostered and made 
to feel at home. Here bloom myriads of native and 
imported orchids. India and the isles of the sea have 
been called upon to contribute their valued foliage, 
and food plants, and medicinal trees and herbs. 
There is a large industrial ground for novel economic 
plants. 



106 The New Jamaica. 

The nurseries contain about 40,000 plants, such as 
cacao, olive, sugar-cane, rubber plants, nutmeg, clove, 
black pepper, mango, vanilla, cardamon, pineapple, 
sarsaparilla, cinnamon, Liberian coffee, tea, etc. 
Taste and skill have combined to arrange these 
beautiful trophies in a manner pleasing to the eye, 
and good sense has dominated the arrangement so 
that the visitor may feel" at his ease and find comfort 
on the benches that are placed along the well-kept 
pathways, or enjoy from the shade of its vine-cov- 
ered arbors, the swift Wag, as it loiters in rich circled 
pools, or leaps by in eddying rapids. 

Castleton is a good place to visit, either for pur- 
poses of social recreation, or more serious labor. The 
landscapist, the botanist or the mere picnicist are 
alike satisfied here. 




IN THE HILLS. 



" How far is it to Cherry Garden ?" 

" Na too faa, maastah." 

" Thank you. Where does this road 

go?" 

" 'E go wehevah you wansteh go, 
sah." 

" Accommodating road." 
" Yessah, anywhere you wishes — ■" 
" Does it go to Hope Garden or 
Constant Spring or Mona ? " 

"No sah, none o' dem places, it jis 
go wehevah you wants to go an' 'tain' too faa." 

One fork of it led to a gully; the dry, rock-bedded, 
tree-bordered channel through which the vernal and au- 
tumnal torrents from the mountains find their way to 
the sea. 

Growing wild on every hand you will find the prized 
hot-house treasures of your northern home. The color 
box of the artist cannot outdo the hues and shades of 
the scores of species of orchids. Lantanas, blue and 
purple, yellow and red, some dwarfed, others gigantic, 
are scattered with the lavish hand of a gardener who 
fears no frost nor dreads a drought. Wild peas, of 
colors galore, and with a tropic vigor that fails at no 



108 The New Jamaica. 

height, bedeck the fallen sugar mill or trail along the 
cactus hedge. Species of sensitive plant, called 
" shame " by the pickaninnies, and their first cousins, 
the giant Cassias, are features of every meadow path 
or distant vista. Here the locust tribe present never 
ending surprises for the student of the few modest 
species in our northern fields ; truly they seem to vie 
with the orchids in the variety of form and color of 
their flowers. 

Oxalis, too, and Ranunculus are occasional remind- 
ers of that land where winter blasts and angry winds 
have at last driven to these wilds of everlasting June. 

Then is no word, nor any combination of words, 
that will tell how Dame Nature has enriched these her 
footpaths in the everlasting hills. 

Wherever the sheer mountains have set a brook as a 
boundary between them, straightway there has flowed 
a full stream of exquisite, multitudinous life ; a foun- 
tain of youth, where we find our boyhood waiting for 
us with the old holiday zest of discovery and adven- 
ture. 

Let us warn you, comrade, that like the country 
that honest John Bunyan saw in his vision, this 
domain has castles dangerous and many a hill of diffi- 
culty. 

Glens and jungles in these mountain slopes are only 
open to the most intrepid and persevering lover of 
nature. The Spanish dagger, with its needle-tipped 
leaves .and recurved sping serrations, the many species 
of prickly pears and other cacti, all abounding in 
bristly or pilose coverings, with the most excoriat- 



In the Hills. 109 

ing powers; the dreaded " cow-itch," a powerful 
creeper with a pod whose bursting fills the air with 
myriads of floating spinules, penetrating and poisonous 
to the extreme ; the various heavy-trailing vines, 
parasitic and parasite bearing, catching the foot at 
every incautious step; the hidden ants' nest beneath 
the crumbling loam, undisturbed save at nature's great 
plowing time, the season of earthquakes ; or the still 
more to be dreaded ant citadel in the crotch of the 
sapling to which you cling for temporary support : — 
all these and many other agents unsuspected torment 
and combine to make the unwary and unobserving for 
ever after a closer student of the wonders if not of 
the beauties of nature. 

On the hither border of this domain is an ancient 
stone aqueduct, terminating in one of the most pic- 
turesque ruins imaginable, the remains of an old sugar 
mill. The gay foliage of the trees and creepers con- 
trast brilliantly with the cool gray tones of its walls. 
The arch of its upper windows frame mosaics of blue 
sky and vine leaves. Nothing is left of the wheel 
now but the wreck of its axle, black and mossy. 
Naught to show where the water flowed from its 
sluice but the massed stalactites at the further end of 
the well. 

A woman near by is grubbing yams in a field, and a 
man with load on head and machete in hand stops 
to speak to her. No living being, born outside of 
Jamaica, could possibly understand their patois or 
imagine it to be a dialect of the English tongue. 
Their voices alone break the silence where, a hundred 



no The New Jamaica. 

years ago, there was the constant hum of industry; 
for this was the centre of one of the great sugar 
estates whose miles of cane fields waved where now 
the occasional hut of the free negro barely breaks the 
thicket. Can we, in fancy, re-establish the scene? 
Can we not imagine the drone of the wheel, the song 
of the workers, the soft plashing of the stream, and, 
above all, the fragrance of the bruised cane or the 
river of amber sweetness fed by its rivulets of sap? 

Drawn by these memories of sweetness, flits and 
hovers that most fitful of all butterflies, the Banded 
Heliconia — Heliconia Charitonia, of the savants. Who 
can lead a life freer from care than does this prince of 
idleness? 

In these wildernesses the ants abound in numbers 
far beyond the apparent needs of Dame Nature, and 
sufficiently to afford a constant menace to him who 
would cast himself into her verdant lap. Ants that 
are black ; and yellow, and red, ants that crawl and ants 
that fly ; ants that work and bite and sting — all and 
others are here. Tunnels and turrets and towers 
attest their architectural skill. Great paper and mud 
nests, high in the trees above the floods, speak for 
their foresightedness, and certain of their number 
herding their "cows," species of plant lice and of 
butterfly larvae, bear witness to their thrift and ability 
as masters. 

Nature is not directly responsible for the presence 
of all the ants here in Jamaica. Some have been 
introduced in the wealth of vegetation from other 
lands, for which this paradise of the botanist is 



In the Hills. in 

famous. Formica Omnivora, at times terrible in its 
depredations, as its name well indicates, was intro- 
duced here for the purpose of ridding the island of 
other insect pests. As in the case of the English 
sparrow and the caterpillars in our Eastern States, it 
was introduced to do just what it was least likely it 
would do, and, still like its ornithological prototype, it 
has become an ineradicable nuisance. 

Leaving the gorge and skirting a field of pine- 
apples, we begin the ascent of an almost perpendicular 
hillside. So steep is it, in fact, that it is impossible to 
make it in a straight line. We must advance by 
zigzags towards the summit. Half way up the hill — 
where we do not arrive until after several breathing 
rests — there is a wattled hut roofed with dry banana 
leaves. Still above this we strike a patch of guinea- 
grass and hills of yams ; that is, if it is proper to speak 
of moles and corrugations on the side of a vertical 
plane as " hills." The mystery is how any one ever 
succeeds in teaching yams to grow in that position, or 
how the soil manages to adhere to the hill frame with- 
out being nailed fast. Nor does it always so adhere. 
Many a truck farmer — save the mark ! — has awakened 
to find that the trembling of the earth which dis- 
turbed his slumbers was his yam field in transitu 
towards the clearing of his neighbor in the valley 
below him. 

Look across the valley. The well-known engraving 
by Hogarth, in which that artist turns to ridicule his 
professional brethren's proficiency in perspective, is 
outdone by the prospect before us. There, on the 



112 



The New Jamaica. 



opposite mountain, hardly more than a pistol shot away 
are fields and gardens like those we are traversing. 
They are such as appear in all the" slopes; spots and 
patches where the insect, Homo Africanus, has 



' * 1 1 




scratched the natural verdure with his hoe, till, at a 
distance, the upper country seems to be affected with 
a mange. But the singular feature of this industrial 
display is, that almost without exception these gar- 



In the Hills. 113 

dens are wider at the top than at the bottom, the 
result being a total inversion of usual perspective 
effects. There is nothing to which we can liken it, 
but the impression (which we all learned in boyhood 
to appreciate) of a landscape seen when one is hanging 
head downwards from a horizontal bar. 

In these upper reaches of the foot-hills we are con- 
fronted on every hand with the testimony of the rocks 
to the upheavals of nature, that were necessary before 
these crenated and water-washed hills were raised 
from the bosom of the troubled waters, from beneath 
which these portions of the lost Atlantic have at last 
been rescued. 

These, too, are the mountains of lost springs and 
rivers. Here the mountain torrent, white with the 
foam of boundless energy beneath a southern sun, and 
tired of the beating ray and blistering rocks, dips 
down into the cool cavern and is forever lost to sight. 

From the bridle road that girdles the hillside, we 
drop again by a tortuous, slippery path to the valley. 
So precipitous is this descent that it seems foolhardy 
for any one but a goat to attempt it. Yet on this 
trail, and on a thousand like it, sturdy, barefooted 
women, carrying heavy burdens of fruit, pass and 
repass daily. Presently we come to a cabin, built 
mostly of bamboo and palmetto. Its sides are woven 
like a basket and its roof is a thick mat of thatch, the 
whole structure being apparently glued to the hillside, 
which has an angle of about seventy-five degrees. In 
front of the hut stands its owner, a jolly-looking 
black fellow, who is engaged in an animated conversa- 



ii4 The New Jamaica. 

tion with a young woman across the way. And we 
wish to explain, parenthetically, that " over the way " 
means just across the valley on the opposite mountain 
slope, to reach which one must accomplish about 
three-quarters of a mile of up and down hill walking. 
He is saying : " What you is doin' yonner topside ? " 
Topside is very expressive, but we always supposed it 
to belong to the " pigeon " vocabulary of John China- 
man. 

Her answer is unintelligible ; not because of the dis- 
tance, but for the reason that we of the sketch book 
and the insect net have not yet completed our educa- 
tion in unconsonated English. 

He responds: "Ah! you bin tief banana." Which 
is evidently a pleasantry, for he turns to us with a 
merry smile on his glistening, ebony countenance. 

" How you is dis maanin', maastah ? " 

Getting the needed information from this cliff- 
dweller, we follow a path that is bordered on both 
sides by banana plants on which the green fruit is 
hanging. This is what is here called a "banana 
walk." Each plant bears a single bunch of fruit 
placed at the base of the leaves ; from it depends a 
heavy plummet-shaped growth about the size of a 
large orange, and reminding one of an overgrown and 
undeveloped rosebud. Its color is a deep maroon, 
and a detached petal or two prove it to be a blossom. 

Luxuriant nature encourages idleness ; idleness is 
but a step towards parasitism. Here, in these wild 
tangles of vine and mighty growths of tree and under- 
brush and fern, parasites of the vegetable world 



In the Hills. 



"5 



abound in every direction. From the mighty silk- 
cotton tree to the tiniest fern, all seem at times to be 
subject to the sapping and deadening effects of some 
parasitic growth. Among the commonest of these are 
the many orchidaceous plants, whose varying flowers 
of endless form and color vie with those of the gaudy 
butterflies and moths that are attracted by them. 
Jamaica has furnished a number of orchids new to the 
botanical world, and it is deep in these haunts that 
these rarities should be sought. No words of ours 
can picture the charm of many a sturdy trunk or limb 
-of some woodland giant as it towers aloft, draped in 
these daintiest of vestments. Surely no family of 
plants presents such variety of form and color in its 
blossoms as do the orchidaceae ; some there are that 
so closely mimic the more brilliant butterflies as to be 
readily mistaken for them. 




The " air pines " are another tribe of plants that add 
largely to the picturesqueness of these filmy haunts. 
" Pine," you must know, here in the Antilles, means 



n6 The New Jamaica. 

not a tree or even a bush, but applies only to the 
pineapple tribe, and those plants which mimic them in 
foliation. Wild and cultivated pines there are, bearing 
apples of varying flavor and juiciness, from the 
" bastard " to the Ripley pine. Where the line of 
demarcation between a state of unkempt nature and 
cultivation lies, it will always puzzle the uninitiated to 
discover. Frequently cultivation seems to signify 
naught, save a very slight degree of oversight to 
prevent-" buckra " from helping himself to the fruits 
which he supposes to be growing in an uncared for 
wilderness, surrounded as .they are, by every form of 
tropic vegetation which will grow in the dryer soils of 
the slopes. 

Down a wood-path, bordering a never failing little 
stream that years ago gained for itself the name of the 
" Constant Spring," a name which has extended to the 
great sugar estate which once depended upon it, a 
ripe golden sided mango hangs temptingly overhead. 
The mangoes are the common 'food of the common 
people and the prized dessert of the better classes; 
and certainly nature has been generous about the 
supply, for you cannot go many rods in any direction 
without finding mango trees growing, either singly or 
in groups, and all laden with fruit which in varying 
flavors will last from late March to Christmas. But 
between the delicious " number eleven" and the 
commonest sort, there is as wide a difference as 
between a gnarled, no-account little cooking pear and 
an old fashioned thoroughbred Bartlett. The first is 
nectar, the second turpentine. 



In the Hills. 117 

The mango hanging over the way does not hang 
there long. It is not a number eleven ; but it is 
delicious. So much so, that it encourages a taste for 
further fruit stealing. That is the best of this coun- 
try; it is the paradise of the fruit lover — the land 
where that rare old alchemist, the sun, packs earth's 
most delicate and fragrant essences in most attractive 
shapes. 

One of our friends spends his time in impressing 
upon people the fact that here the banana and the 
pineapple are side by side, and the mango and the 
naseberry lie down together, as it were, while the 
sugar cane and the sapodillo are inseparable, and all 
can be had for the picking. It does not seem as 
though living ought to be expensive where most of the 
people never saw a store, where many of them never 
wear more clothing than the law absolutely demands, 
and where the most desirable food is so convenient 
that all the native needs to do in the way of work is to 
sleep under a tree with his mouth open. 

Only at night, however, can the romantic seeker 
after Faiy-folk (the " filmies " .of Jamaica folk lore) hope 
to see nature in a mood when they do most unbend 
and elfin pranks and brownie gambols are the order of 
the hour. 

Follow yon giant briefly ; one of those monstrous 
fellows whose single beam lights up the student's page 
or sheds a halo around the dusk beauty's head, lashed 
as he is in a harness of horsehair to the curly locks of 
some belle of the ballroom. As this one — our guide 
let him be — flits hither and yon in search of his less 



n8 The New Jamaica. 

brilliant mate, a ray of his light gives us a momentary 
peep at a fairy rendezvous; and just as it fades away 
we have discerned a score of tiny forms in gala array, 
marshalled near a clump of filmy ferns. Were they 
the filmies at last, or were they some insect host seen 
by the flickering light and through the eyes of a na- 
ture-lover's imagination ? Alas ! the fitful gleam that 
revealed them to us has made known our presence 
to them, for by the next ray from this entomological 
flash-light we see but the empty sod where but a mo- 
ment before were those mystic forms. 

Just as we resolve to step with gentler tread, a 
great, brown owl, that night-watchman who never 
needs the aid of burglar-alarm or time-detector, emits 
his all pervading cry, " Oh ! ho ! Oh ! ho ! a man 
below ! " and then a fluttering sound — had those 
filmies wings? — and a sound of scurrying and scam- 
pering tells us that the spell is broken and we of all 
the human-shaped world are alone in one of nature's 
weirdest habitations. 

Jamaica, possessed of 500 miles of coast line in 
which bays and harbors abound, with but 646 square 
miles of plain and about 3,550 square miles of moun- 
tain land is an extreme illustration of the varied topog- 
raphy which depends on volcanic origin followed by 
centuries of erosion. Here the landslip, the endless 
chain of caverns, the sinking river, the resistless moun- 
tain torrent — raging to-day and dry in a few hours — 
all add to the difficulties which tropical vegetation and 
unsolved meteorological and geological problems have 
already brought to the student. 



In the Hills. 119 

The island contains but 4,193 square miles, these 
being less than one sixty-fifth the size of the State of 
Texas and less than one-third the size of San Diego 
County, California. Yet, small as is its area, so varied 
is its contour and surface that it presents a most 
diversified range of scenery and climate. 

To treat of the Geology of Jamaica in so narrow 
limits as are here at our command is quite out of the 
question. The reader who desires to obtain an inti- 
mate knowledge of this feature of the island, will do 
well to consult Sawkin's "Geology of Jamaica," 
which, though published some years ago, is still the 
standard authority on this subject. Suffice it here to 
say that the basis of the island is igneous in character, 
deposed upon which are several distinct formations. 
White and yellow limestones, carbonaceous shales, 
trappean and metamorphosed series, conglomerates, 
porphoritic and granitic rocks, alluvial deposits, with 
numerous traces of iron, copper, lead, manganese and 
cobalt and some signs of good marbles are so inter- 
woven and generally distributed as to make the effect 
on the student quite confusing at first. The surface 
of Jamaica, as is attested by the but 646 square miles 
of flat lands, is very mountainous, and in places quite 
rugged, though always verdure clad, save where an 
occasional washout or landslip has temporarily de- 
nuded the face of some precipitous hill. Running 
nearly due east and west, the island has a midrib or 
backbone of mountain peaks, the culminating point be- 
ing reached at the peaks of the Blue Mountains, south 
of Hope Bay in Portland and on the dividing line be- 



120 The New Jamaica. 

tween that parish and that of St. Thomas ye East. 
The highest of these three peaks reaches an altitude 
of 7,360 feet, which is somewhat higher than any other 
land in Eastern North America. 

Several of the subordinate ranges approach the 
main chain both in height and scenic grandeur. Thus 
from Albion, in St. Thomas beyond Bellevue in St. 
Andrews, the St. Catharine's range presents a varied 
and rugged face towards the south, raising to its 
greatest elevation at Catharine's Peak north of New- 
castle — 5,070 feet — and shutting out the higher peaks 
of the Blue Mountains from the plains of Liquaneaand 
Rio Cobre. So, too, the plains to the north of Yallahs, 
in St. Thomas, are for the most part shut out from 
a view of the Blue Mountains by the Coward's and 
Queensbury Ridges, which, at Yallahs Hill, culminate 
in an elevation of 2,348 feet. So abrupt are these 
cross and parallel ridges, and so woven together in a 
network of peak and valley, ridge and ravine, that it 
has been impossible for us to more than indicate the 
position of a few of the principal mountain sum- 
mits. 

Jamaica is much higher to the eastward, and greatly 
reduced in general elevation for a long stretch before 
the western limit is reached. This is interesting to 
the student of mountain ranges and island formations, 
as it is one of the very few exceptions to a very gen- 
eral rule to the contrary long ago pointed out by Dar- 
win and others. 

The well timbered and vine clad hills are every- 
where riven by the streams, which become raging tor- 



In the Hills. 121 

rents in time of heavy rains and which during droughts 
are but empty canons or gorges of great beauty and 
wildness. 

As elsewhere stated, these rivers are notable for the 
remarkable fact that many of them never reach the 
sea. As in the cave regions of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, so in Jamaica there are a number of rivers that 
disappear into cavernous openings in the earth, some 
never to appear again, so far as is yet known, others 
only at considerable distances, and under new names. 
Probably the most remarkable case of a lost stream is 
that of Hector's River on the southern boundary of 
the Parish of Trelawney, which after about twelve 
miles on the surface, suddenly drops in the wild 
honeycomb formation east of Accompong Town, only 
to be resurrected at Oxford in Manchester under the 
name of the One Mye River. 

After another brief surface course it is lost to 
sight under a ridge of the Bogue Hills. From 
the other side of this ridge it emanates at both 
Mexico and Island Estates in the Parish of St. Eliza, 
beth, rushing forth with a considerably increased vol- 
ume. From these points for a space of forty-four 
miles now known as the Black River, it winds its way 
through the Savannahs and swamps until it reaches the 
coast at the Bay of Black River. This is unquestion- 
ably the largest river on the island, and it is the only 
one on which navigation can be carried on at all times 
of the year for any considerable distance. It is not 
by disappearance into caverns that a number of the 
rivers of Jamaica are lost to sight, but by actual evap- 



122 The New Jamaica. 

oration, as they run over the pebbles and between the 
boulders under the scorching and blistering tropical 
sunlight. It is a common occurrence to find that some 
ever-flowing mountain stream, vigorous even in times 
of drought, will slowly dwindle away as it emerges from 
the shadows of the heavy woods of the mountain 
gorges. Such a stream, so easily evaporated in the dry 
season, reaches the coast after the terrific downpours 
of the wet season with resistless volume and velocity. 
Then it is that these usually very insignificant creeks 
or brooks earn their right to be called rivers. Fortu- 
nately the Department of Public Works is fast putting 
up good and durable bridges over nearly all the 
streams which are really formidable barriers to safe 
travel during the season of rains, and soon there 
will be but little of this sort for the traveller to 
dread. 

Well watered as is the greatest part of Jamaica, still 
there are extensive districts in the middle and western 
parts of the island which are almost barren of water. 
This is not due to the entire absence of water courses, 
for there too the ravines, usually dry, carry off a con- 
siderable rainfall during short periods, though there 
are long stretches of weeks and even months when no 
rain falls, leaving the inhabitants in sore distress. As 
the principal' mountain ranges trend east and west, it 
is plain that most of the rivers will take a northerly or 
southerly course. At the eastern end of the island the 
Plantain Garden River, and at the northwestern ex- 
tremity the Montejo River are the only notable excep- 
tions to this rule. A further discussion of the rivers of 



In the Hills. 123 

the island, with descriptions of their peculiarities and 
beauties, will be found in the general description of 
tours among the parishes. 

The geological structure of Jamaica is such as to 
lead the observer at once to look for caves, and through- 
out the island, though principally west of the Parish 
of St. Andrews, numbers of these, many of which are 
in all probability connected by long series of subter- 
ranean passages, will be found. 

In the early days of Maroon warfare they were con- 
stantly employed by that freedom-loving people for 
the purpose of eluding their enemies. It is also prob- 
able that many of those nearest the seacoast were used 
by the Spanish and Portuguese buccaneers as rendez- 
vous and for the storing of their booty. It must be con- 
fessed that it is from this point of view that these cav- 
erns are looked upon with most interest by Jamaicans, 
and the negro fables and superstitions attached to 
some of them would furnish the romancer food for 
many a stirring tale. 

In common with all cavernous countries Jamaica is 
almost devoid of lakes ; none really worthy the name 
are to be found. Ponds, both fresh and salt, there are , 
usually the latter, along the south coast. A lake has 
been recently reported as present near the summit of 
the John Crow Mountains, in the Parish of Portland, 
but judging from the description given by the intrepid 
explorer who visited this wild and unsettled region, it 
is rather to be set down as a large sink hole, or perhaps 
the eroded crater of a long extinct volcano. Sink 
holes there are without number, several of them being 



124 



The New Jamaica. 



both by situation and formation very weird and pic- 
turesque. Many of these receive notice in other chap- 
ters. 




AN EARLY START. 



STARTING from the American Hotel, at Constant 
Spring, early on a June morning (for this is a summer 
outing), we commence a long promised tour which 
shall take us through all the coast towns and villages 
of Jamaica. An inspection of the " buggy," or two 
seated covered trap, results satisfactorily. Richard 
Davis, the best driver in Jamaica, is on the front seat, 
and beside him is piled the necessary luggage for a 
three weeks jaunt. The horses, able and willing to do 
all the work required of them, wait for us without any 
of that unreasonable anxiety and impatience which 
less experienced horses might show. They have 
never been abused nor worn out, but they are not 
novices at long distance pulling. They will take us 
over mountains, around coast roads, through valleys, 
in sun and rain, for four hundred and fifty miles and 
be back in twenty-one days, very little thinner or less 
serviceable than now. Richard, too, deserves a word 
of special notice. A perfect guide-book and ready 
reference is he, furnished with marginal notes and 
bound in brown leather. Having driven " His 
'Xc'llency de Gov'nah " he has acquired dignity ; 
being intelligent and humane, he drives skilfully, 
without injury to his charges, the horse-kind ; and as 



126 1'he New Jamaica. 

for the human-kind under his care, we gave ourselves 
up with a sigh of relief to his ministrations. We took 
no thought for the horses feed, nor the location of the 
best lodging-houses, nor the exact position of points of 
interest. Richard would not fail to furnish the desired 
information when required. He is the only boy of his 
class that we ever saw who can give an accurate esti- 
mate of the distance between two places. 

A few hand-shakes and we' were off. The sun had 
risen before us, as we were late in starting, as people 
usually are on such occasions. But those who imag- 
ine that a June morning in Jamaica, even after the sun 
has risen, is anything less than delightful, must have 
had his mind poisoned by false reports, or else be so 
puffed up with pride over his own particular climate, 
wherever it may be, that he has no just appreciation 
of any other sort of weather. 

While we are jogging down through Paradise Town 
towards the Windward road, in the dewy freshness of 
the early day, it will be a good time to say a few 
words to the people who are forever pitying the man 
or woman who outstays the winter in this latitude. 
Of course the midday sun is hot. Of course people 
who are not used to it must expect headaches, and 
even fevers, if they exercise in it too much before, 
becoming accustomed to it, or without taking the 
proper precautions as to clothing and drink. Of 
course it is hot enough to cook eggs. What would 
you have in latitude 17 ? 

But be assured that, having taken fewer precautions 
than the Northerner expects of his brother from the 



An Early Start. 127 

tropics, who visits him in midwinter, after a few weeks 
residence we have walked for ten or fifteen miles over 
the hills, through the hottest part of the day, with an 
unclouded sky overhead, and enjoyed it. 

But this is sunshine we are talking about. Come 
into the shade, and you will laugh, as we did, over the 
discomfiture of New York, Philadelphia or Chicago 
people, who are sweltering in an atmosphere of hu- 
midity with the thermometer 'way up in the nineties, 
while yours registers 83 or 84 , and the constant 
breeze is dry and pure. There are some old notions 
that must be reconsidered, old judgments that will 
have to be reversed. That fallacy about Jamaica's 
climate is one of them. 

We are swinging out between the pound and the 
lunatic asylum, past Chelsea pier, towards Long 
Mountain. There, high up on its side in the sunshine, 
is a bare rock that looks like a house, and, further on, a 
house that might be mistaken for a rock, with some- 
where near them the trace of a road. As we near the 
harbor head we see a large barge, rowed by convicts, 
making its way for Rock fort. The landing and dis- 
charge of its living freight is a surprise. Where under 

the deck did that long line of prisoners come 

from? They march, two and two, to a quarry, near 
which we pass. They are dressed in loose, cool-look- 
ing white sacking, and each one has painted upon the 
back of his upper garment certain cabalistic signs, 
figures and letters, which give more information 
regarding his name, rank in crime, and condition of 
servitude that we have pretended to remember. 



128 The New Jamaica. 

Close to the quarry is Rock fort, an impotent but 
picturesque piece of military architecture that the 
Spaniards set much store by, till they found that the 
shot from English guns found their way over it. It is 
not useful at present, though highly ornamental, and 
the arch at the rear, under which we on the road must 
pass, is fairly green with moss and romance. Rock- 
fort is one of the most perfectly satisfactory things in 
its way that man ever imagined. — The view of the 
fort from the harbor is fine, and the view of the harbor 
from the fort beggars description. But we could not 
help wondering how those poor rascals bending over 
the stone piles, with their backs marked like so much 
merchandise, regarded it. The masonry is in good 
repair and the place is occupied by the colonial 
department. To the unmilitary man its reason for 
being is a mystery, since at present it guards nothing. 



ON THE WINDWARD ROAD, 



HAVING passed Rock fort and the harbor head, 
skirted the foot of Long Mountain, where its magnifi- 
cent wooded flank sweeps in a horseshoe curve from 
east to south, and forded the uncertain waters of the 
Hope River, we come to a wide, stony river bed, 
dry but for a miniature stream that steals along, 
under a fringe of bushes, to the ocean. Half a mile 
away, upon the other side of the stony level, com- 
mence the foot-hills, that rise rapidly and acquire 
dignity and proportions till they look down upon us 
from the cloud society they have got into. 

We have left our carriage in the shadow of a tree 
near the roadside, and with an admonition to the 
driver to keep watch, start for the gorge, that must lie 
somewhere beyond that first wooded spur to the left. 
As we turn the point the view is striking and impres- 
sive. On the right the morning shadows still lie, 
while the mountain at our left is radiant with sunlight. 
The water worn rocks over which we are passing, tell 
their own story of sudden flood and overflow, and as 
we get into a narrower valley where it begins to close 
up to the ravine a mile or two beyond, there are 
further evidences apparent of strong floods. Here and 
there the earth is cut away, making a sharp terrace. 



i3° 



The New Jamaica. 



Then we approach closer to the rocks and see a well- 
worn water-mark, higher than a man's head. It seems 
hardly possible to believe that the little brook at our 
feet can swell to that. Further still, and we enter a 
canon whose walls, several hundred feet in height, rise 
sheer on either side. There must have been a grand 
convulsion of nature here at some time, for on our 
left the strata of the rock may be seen almost vertical, 
clear to the top. 

As we ascend, the 
stream grows larger. 
On the plain much of it 
has evaporated. We 
come to falls, piled up 
rocks, whirling-pools ; 
looking into some of 
these we find that they 
are full of ' Mountain 
Mullet, a treat for a 
sportsman ; then a nar- 
row gateway, beyond 
which the gorge widens 
a little, and we mount 
by a well built stone 
pathway, a sort of Ja- 
cob's ladder, through a cave and under an overhanging 
rock to the principal fall. It is a spot to dream about — 
to be enthusiastic over ; and yet we found few people 
in Kingston, less than ten miles away, that knew of its 
existence. Most of them could tell you more of some 
cascade in the highlands of Scotland, or the Catskills 




On the Windward Road. j^t 

of New York, either of which might play second to 
this dainty bit of Jamaican scenery. 

Occasionally a party drive out there to picnic. 
That is one good thing about Jamaica : a picnic 
party leaves no sign. The ubiquitous negro appropri- 
ates anything in the way of tin or paper, and John 
Crow takes care of all other fragments. Returning to 
our trap we are soon on the way to Yallahs, crossing 
by the way of the Yallahs River, a stream much like 
these we have described only larger than they ; it is 
too wide and too shifting to be successfully bridged, 
and so it is Very likely that passengers will continue to 
take the chances of sudden floods and the danger 
attending them. Not long ago a whole family was 
lost on this spot, and frequently those travelling this 
road have been caught for two or three days between 
Hope and Yallahs, in a region where lodging houses 
are an unknown quantity. 

Easington, the ancient capital of the parish of St. 
Davids, before that parish was merged into St. 
Thomas, lies inland on the Yallahs River. It has 
quite a fine suspension bridge and is reached by a very 
fair road. The court meets here twice during the 
month. It is one of the five principal towns of St. 
Thomas; the others being Bath, Port Morant, Morant 
Bay and Yallahs Bay. 

Just before reaching Yallahs River we come to the 
great sugar estate of Albion ; broad acres of growing 
cane, through which at frequent intervals flow the 
irrigating streams, so necessary to successful cane 
culture. Beyond these fields are long lines of barracks 



132 The New Jamaica. 

or " quarters," painted white, and flanking the clus- 
tered stone and brick buildings of the estate. A 
flavor of sugar, and a vague suggestion of something 
more potent hangs over the whole place. There is a 
moist freshness and greenness in these big cane fields 
that one seeks for in vain elsewhere in the tropics. 
An anonymous author, in a recently published paper 
in Blackwood's Magazine, — one from whom we may 
quote again, as his statement of the condition of affairs 
in Jamaica seems the fairest and truest of any recently 
published, says : 

" Now, as heretofore, the most important agricultu- 
ral produce of Jamaica, as far as the outside world is 
concerned, is the cane, and sugar and rum are the 
largest exports. In most districts in the island the 
eye is at once attracted by the stretches of emerald 
green cane-pieces, and, in the centre of each estate, by 
the tall chimney of the engenio where the crop is 
crushed, the juice is operated on, and the refuse of one 
manufacture forms the basis of another. The halcyon 
days of the sugar industry are past, and the profits of 
old times may never be reaped again ; but even under 
present conditions, the sugar-cane crop pays well, and 
capital coupled with energy and industry have, as we 
said above, no reason to be dissatisfied with the result 
of their efforts." 

The last fiscal report shows that there are a total of 
32,515 acres of cane, under cultivation in Jamaica, a 
falling off of nearly one quarter during a decade. 
This reduced cultivation is said to be caused by the low 
price of muscovado sugar in the European markets. 



On the Windward Road. 



*33 



The Albion estate, considered for many years one 
of the best and richest in the island, contains 4,976 
acres, only a few hundred of which are now under 
cultivation. All the latest improvements in sugar 
machinery are in use there, vacuum pans and centrifu- 
gal process; yet the other day it went to the hammer. 

Leaving Albion with its living green behind us, 
beyond the Yallahs River, we drive into the pictur- 
esque straggling little town of Yallahs, around a turn 
in the road and up to Mother Noel's house. A 
good sized two-story frame house it is, with a steep 
stairway at one side, by which you ascend to the 
entrance on the second floor. Mother Noel herself 
meets us at the door and conducts us into a neat 
parlor or hall, which occupies the centre of the house, 
and from which four rooms open. There is a passage 
at the front, going clear across, and another to match 
it at the rear ; from either of these the main room is 
entered. This apartment contains some rather good 
old mahogany furniture, solid, of course, as all 
furniture is in this country, where mahogany may be 
had almost for the cutting. Mother Noel, now in the 
neighborhood of eighty years, has passed much of her 
life here, and is widely known to travellers as one who 
keeps a contented mind, a good reputation and an 
excellent table. There are few lodgings, in Jamaica 
or elsewhere, where one can procure a good cup of 
coffee, but this is one of the few. 

Beyond Yailahs, after passing the salt ponds, the 
country is full of streams which one must ford, the 
water often coming up to the wagon hubs. There are 



134 The New Jamaica. 

stories told of different people who have been caught 
by the sudden rising of these waters. A sailor, and 
later still, a postman, lost their lives in trying to "do" 
the fords when the rivers were " down." Finally we 
reach Morant Bay, a small place where there is little 
accommodation for the traveller, but much to interest 
one, both in the natural scenery and sea view and in 
the large shipments of fruit made from here. Besides 
this, there is much that is interesting to the student 
of history in Morant Bay. 

We could not find lodgings, the one room devoted 
to that purpose in the town being already pre-empted; 
but we were afterwards rejoiced that it was so and 
inclined to attribute it to good fortune, as we were 
kindly entertained by a gentleman of the neighbor- 
hood, from whose house on the hill all that is most 
attractive in the neighborhood is included in one 
comprehensive view. 

It was here at Morant Bay that the first scene in 
the tragedy of October, 1865, was enacted, as already 
related in the second chapter of this book. The 
vestry of St. Thomas ye East, met at the court-house 
at Morant Bay for the transaction of parochial busi- 
ness. At three o'clock on the eleventh day of the 
month, several hundred people, crying, " Color for 
color," closed in about the building and began to 
stone the volunteers, who were drawn up to guard the 
members of the vestry. The story has been well told 
in the following concise language. 

" The Riot Act was read and the Volunteers fired, 
but they were soon overpowered. A hand-to-hand 



On the Windtuard Road. 



!35 



struggle ensued, during which Captain Hitchins, faint 
from the loss of blood, rested on the knee of a Volun- 
teer the rifle he had taken from a murdered comrade 
and fired his two remaining rounds of ammunition. 
He was then surrounded and hacked to death. All 
the officers and many of the members of the Volun- 
teer Corps nobly died at their post, gallantly doing 
their duty. The Custos of the Parish, the Curate of 
Bath, the Inspector of Police, and a number of 
Magistrates and other personages were also mur- 
dered." 

One who journeyed through this same region only a 
few years ago, spoke of the clouded looks and morose 
expression of the negroes, who seemed to remember 
the terrible chastisement which followed this outbreak, 
and to be waiting their chance for revenge ; but to-day 
there seems to be nothing left of this feeling. When 
a man was starving, or next door to it, waiting his 
chance for a job which would pay him a shilling a day, 
he could afford to remember a smart ; but after he has 
found it better to work than to brood, he begins to 
forget past grievances. Fruit growing and other 
blessings that have come in its train have gone far to 
make a contented peasantry, and to draw a veil over 
the horrible events of less than a generation ago. 
Although the buildings were nearly all burnt at the 
time we have written of, there are now a hospital, 
almshouse, court-house and constabulary station, an 
iron market building, a post-office and telegraph 
station, an Episcopal church and one belonging to the 
Wesleyan congregation. This for a town of little 



36 



The New Jamaica. 



more than one thousand people is not a. poor show- 
ing. 

Bidding farewell to our good host at Morant Bay, 
we approach Port Morant, where Captain Baker's 
estate of Bowden is, and from which a quantity of fine 
bananas are shipped by the various companies engaged 
in the fruit business. • It is interesting to see the 
great vessels of the Atlas, the Boston Co., and other 




steamship lines come into this quiet, enclosed harbor 
and transform its repose into activity. 

But we are going on a little too fast. We pass on 
the way woods, where it is said that the hero of old 
time melodramas, "Three-fingered Jack," performed 
his feats of derring do. Of course the searching eye of 



On the Windward Road. 137 

modern investigation has reduced Jack to the vulgar 
proportions of a brutal negro foot pad, whom we are 
glad not to meet nowadays. 

The Morant River has quite a delta, and at its broad- 
est branch we stop to watch the women who are wash- 
ing and gossiping just above us. 

There is a riding road along the Morant River, to a 
place in the interior called Island Head, in the coffee 
region. From Island Head, a bridle path will take 
one, by the course of an old road built by Governor 
Trelawney, in the last century, but now gone to ruin, 
over the mountains and into the Maroon settlement 
of Nanny Town, named after their once notorious 
chief. We will have more to say about this place in 
another chapter. 

On the way to Port Morant we must not miss the 
view from the turn in the road above " White Horses," 
a cliff which makes a prominent coast mark to mari- 
ners, and whence a grand ocean view with foreground 
of picturesque rock and enchanting verdure makes the 
traveller long to pitch his tabernacle there. 

The nearer approach to the shipping place of Bow- 
den is first through the village of Port Morant, a little 
cluster of houses and cabins around a cross road where 
some great trees throw their shade ; beyond whose 
trunks are vistas of white road, thatched roofs, palm 
tops and streams. Then the way skirts an unsavory 
morass, into which the tide flows among the mangrove 
stalks. After that a sharp turn, and it follows the 
curve of a hill base, passes a little settlement and ends 
at the storehouses and wharf. 



i38 



The New Jamaica. 




On the Windward Road. 130 

From here, as from the hill top, the view is wonder- 
fully fine and the air all that could be desired. In 
spite of the swamp, the people seem to be blessed 
with abundant health. Bowden is one of a number of 
estates which, no longer valuable for sugar and rum 
producing, are adding their quota to the new wealth 
of fruit and cocoanuts. 

Many people are bringing down the bananas from 
their little fields, back in the hills. They are put into 
the storehouse in open slat crates or bins, where the an- 
nas full access to them. All the fruit is picked green 
and shipped in that condition, and when placed on 
board the steamers is so arranged that each separate 
bunch is well ventilated. This is done by building open 
stalls of slats between decks, or hanging the bunches 
in tiers. Great canvas funnels are put down through 
the hatches whenever the weather is sufficiently fine 
to allow the latter to remain open, and these, with 
their broad mouths stretched open to catch the breeze, 
carry it into the hold. 



BATH AND MANCHIONEAL. 



THE country is richer and more tropical as we leave 
the coast and drive up towards Bath. At Port Morant, 
or near that point, the road makes a sharp turn to the 
north, and the impression of lavish expenditure of en- 
ergy on the part of nature is heightened. at every step. 
The road in the neighborhood of Port Morant used to 
be famous for nothing so much as its mud. People 
stuck there frequently ; especially was that the case 
with the heavy wagons loaded with rum and sugar, 
which now travel easily on one of the best roads the 
island affords. There are twenty miles of this highway 
where you will not find a break, or any unevenness or 
mud. It is as perfect as possible, and ^"500 per annum 
keeps the whole twenty miles in repair. When you 
consider that this road is solidly built, with stone 
culverts, bridges, rock terracing and hill work all the 
way, the result surprises you. 

The negroes who work upon the road are small con- 
tractors. Work on concrete, iron work or what not is 
done at so much per yard, and the workers earn from 
one to two shillings per diem, usually knocking off on 
Saturday, reserving that for market or field work. 

As we advance we lose the bits of marine view that 
added so much to the beauty of the Windward road. 



Bath and Manchioneal. 141 

These views are replaced by no less enchanting glens 
and ravines, into which the rich, deep, pervading, all- 
enveloping fulness of sylvan life floods like a tide, 
overshadowing the road and rolling in billows of 
verdure up the hillsides. Along such a way, past 
a curious hillside with vertical strata ; marking the 
end of a moraine and making a note of interroga- 
tion for those who would limit glacial action to 
the continents ; stopping at springs where the abun- 
dant copper ore told the mountain's secret ; crossing 
bridges and driving through fords, we reached Bath. 
Bath, — once fashionable, but now only occasionally 
visited; Bath, — where the lotus must have been im- 
ported with the other rarities, upas, cork, gamboge 
and such like trees, in the old garden, so that the trav- 
eller sits him down in Mistress Duffy's parlor and is 
straightway content to let the world outside go as it 
will without him. 

May we speak of G., who tarried to show us the gar- 
dens and sanitarium and to do the honors for the hills 
and watercourses? or of Mrs. S., whose collected pam- 
phlets were such an aid to us, and whose garden with 
its flowers and fruit and chances for entomological 
research was such a delight? or of S., the direc- 
tor whom we met at the bath, whose attentions 
were so helpful to us? These were only a few of 
many who added to the enjoyment of our sojourn. 

The baths, which are about a mile and a half from 
the town, which owes its existence to this proximity, are 
at the end of a winding road bordered with vines and 
moss and fern covered rock, flowering shrubs, trees 



142 



The New Jamaica. 



heavy with fruit and an atmosphere charged with 
moisture and very fragrant, like that of some vast 
greenhouse whose temperature and humidity had been 
regulated to force vegetable growth to the utmost 
limit of its possibilities. 

At the bath we find' a building in charge of a one 
armed man, who introduces visitors to the stone basins 
built to receive the hot and cold water that flows from 




the hillside within a few feet of each other. There 
are in Jamaica, as noted elsewhere, several baths of a 
medicinal nature. The one we are visiting has been 
chiefly valued for its unquestionable influence on rheu- 
matic and cutaneous disorders. 

Much has been written of these springs ; nearly all 
the historians of the island have had something to 
say of the "baths," as they are commonly called, 
though only those at Bath, in St. Thomas, and Milk 



Bath and Manchioneal. 143 

River, in Clarendon are so fitted up with houses, etc., 
as to deserve that name. The only other spring that 
seems to call for special consideration is that known 
formerly as the " Jamaica Spa," in the St. Andrews' 
mountains, near Newcastle, but long ago abandoned 
and left to go to decay. 

The Bath of St. Thomas is derived from a sulphur- 
ous sodic calcic thermal spring ; that at the Jamaica 
Spa from an acidulous ferro aluminous spring ; and 
that at Milk River a saline calcic thermal. 

Straying further up the stream that brawls by the 
station we were suddenly caught in a most terrific 
downpour of rain. The broad leaves of the wild plan- 
tain or the shadowing limb of a bread fruit tree made 
but poor shelter. But soon the sun came out to cheer 
us and the great greenhouse of nature steamed again, 
till it seemed as though the expanding of trunk and 
leaf occurred visibly. 

Besides at Mrs. Duffy's well kept house one can find 
lodging, though no board, at the bath building. 

Bath was the scene of some of the great atrocities of 
the insurrection of Governor Eyre's time. Some of 
the people of the village still have tales to tell of the 
pillage of valuables, of sudden flight to the woods, of 
hardship and of suffering. The town is a small but 
very pretty place. It has its church and chapels, 
court-house and constabulary station, and a small 
population who are most contented and industrious 
blacks. 

From Bath one can go by a bridle road up to the 
weird and wonderful " Cuna cuna " pass in the Blue 



44 



The New Jamaica. 



Mountains, a ride of rare beauty and interest, and from 
thence descend through the region of the Rio Grande 
to Port Antonio, past the Maroon settlement at Moore 
Town ; or he can, by following a road that skirts the 
Plantain Garden River, reach Island Head and 
from there, by the way already described, to Nanny 
Town. 

All of this ridge, and the country north and 




east of it, is of great interest to one who enjoys a lit- 
tle hardship with his travel, for it is an unsettled and 
untravelled country for the most part. 

We must not neglect to speak of the Scotch gentle- 
man, engaged in coffee planting, whose optimism 
threw a rosy light over the sable toilers of the land. 
He says that the labor problem here is only a ques- 
tion of fair wages. In his opinion the black man is 



Bath and Manchioneal. i^c 

not lazy, but underpaid. The superintendent of that 
piece of road we have admired adds that he can 
always get good laborers by paying living prices. " Do 
not fine your men. When they don't suit, discharge 
them ; when they do, pay them." 

One of the characters of Bath is a soldierly old fel- 
low who modestly hides a Victoria cross, except on 
pension days. He stood with the little party that 
Havelock relieved at Lucknow, in India, and now he 
bosses a gang of negroes on the highway, in Jamaica. 

From Bath to Manchioneal the way is more level, 
passing bottom lands that are frequently overflowed, 
and meadows that are like those of the mother country. 
At Manchioneal we tarry at a dingy lodging, " not too 
bad " and certainly not too good, within sight of the 
sea. To the right, are the clean, bright looking build- 
ings of the constabulary station and the church. To the 
left, a high bluff hides the road along which we are 
to journey. 



IN PORTLAND— PORT ANTONIO. 



Of Damascus the ancient prophet wrote, " It shall 
be a ruinous heap." Did any one prophesy concerning 
the great estates that lie along the road from Man- 
chioneal to Port Antonio ? In the quaint, terse lan- 
guage of the courts, they are " in ruinate." 

In the parish of Portland in the county of Surrey, 
between the John Crow Mountains and the sea, lie 
many abandoned estates ; buildings, walls, chimneys, 
aqueducts, all going to pieces, and the oncoming tide 
of foliage, like a green wave, engulfing them. There 
is much of beauty and interest in this eastern end of 
Portland. The road winds with the turning of the 
coast line, and constantly affords surprises and scenes of 
rich beauty. Deep bays and inlets, beaches where the 
transparent water breaks in a long surf, headlands 
crowned with foliage, all afford satisfaction to the eye. 
Innis* Bay, is a deep indentation in the coast, upon 
which we come suddenly, having crossed previously a 
bit of uncultivated land shut in by bushes and trees. 
We look down from above on the expanse of emerald 
water and the worn rocks, white with its foam. Trop- 
ical trees frame the picture. Here are the Fair^ Hill 
Bay, with its extensive outlook each way over the 
ocean; Priestman's River, deep at the mouth as it 



In Portland — Port Antonio. 147 

debouches into its little harbor ; and the exquisite 
" Blue Water," whose turquoise shades into amethyst 
in the shadows, over which the bending trunks and 
swaying tops of a hundred cocoanut trees cast their 
reflections. All through this region are scattered 
scenes of rare beauty. At intervals, we arrive at pens 
where cattle are grazed, and estates that are converted 
into pasturage for horse kind. Little hamlets here 
and there, scattered along the road, show a healthy- 
looking but meagre population. The country, like 
many other neighborhoods in Jamaica, strikes one as 
being under populated — which indeed is the case. 

But in spite of its beauty, its natural fertility, its 
advantageous situation, its grazing pens and villages, 
Eastern Portland gives the impression of desolation. 
Mile after mile of unused, unredeemed acres, once 
flourishing with cane, but now given over to wild 
growths, sadden even the most optimistic observer. 
Here has been dreadful loss. The cause of this 
desertion of estates has been already noticed in the 
earlier chapters of this book. 

But a surprise greater than any of those that have 
greeted us upon the road, is in store. There comes a 
point where the decay. is arrested, and a new life 
appears to animate the scene. The population is 
larger and thriftier, the waste alcres are taken up and 
planted with fruit. Everywhere one sees increasing 
evidence of greater prosperity. Why is it ? We have 
seen how king cane was dethroned : now we are pres- 
ent at the coronation of king banana. " Lo ! the old 
order changes, giving place to new." 



148 The New Jamaica. 

We drive into Port Antonio and up to Mrs. Brown's 
lodgings ; a large, well and cleanly kept white house 
on a hill, from which we may overlook part of the 
town and see one of the harbors. Port Antonio is 
blessed with two harbors, divided by the rocks of 
Navy Island. The western harbor is the greater : 
here large steamers can lie close to the wharves. 

Properly there are two towns, upper and lower 
Titchfield, the division being made by the hill. 
Lower Titchfield, or Port Antonio, lies along the 
beach on the lower land, and contains the governmen- 
tal and mercantile buildings. The hand-book gives 
this useful piece of information and advice to mar- 
iners approaching Port Antonio. " The fort and 
barracks are conspicuous objects from the offing. 
Navigators strange to the locality, sometimes find it 
difficult to distinguish the entrance to the harbor, and 
if a vessel should approach the shore to the eastward 
of it, the remains of some old sugar works in ruins 
might be taken for the old fort at Titchfield and 
prove misleading, but by running along the land the 
place, when once opened, cannot be mistaken. The 
new light house on Folly Point at the entrance of 
the harbor is a great aid to navigation/' 

In the year '68, which has already been spoken of as 
one of remarkable promise for Jamaica, the initial effort 
was made in fruit shipment, which has resulted so ben- 
eficially, not only for Port Antonio, but the whole 
island of Jamaica. The author of " Picturesque Ja- 
maica," refers to the pioneer banana shipper in the fol- 
lowing terms. " Above fifteen years ago, a Yankee 



/// Portland — Port Antonio. 149 

skipper knocking about with his schooner, had occa- 
sion to call at some of the ports on the easterly part 
of the island. His keen eye looked with interest on 
the bananas that were so plentifully offered him, and 
knowing the taste the Americans were fast acquiring 
for this delicious fruit, but which was rarely found in 
the American markets, set himself to the task of de- 
vising means to convey the fruit in a sound condition 
to those markets. The success which has followed, is 
shown by the fact that the shipment of bananas to 
America has become one of the leading industries of 
this island." The Yankee skipper referred to — now 
more commonly known as the Banana King — is Capt. 
L. D. Baker, whose interests, merged in those of the 
Boston Fruit Company, are to-day among the largest 
in the land for which his enterprise has done so much. 

One of the prominent objects seen from the road to 
the eastward is the Episcopal church, a building of 
some beauty and uncertain age — or rather, having a 
record of moderate age duly preserved, has gained the 
popular reputation of being' ancient. Like many of 
the " very old " buildings now standing in Jamaica, its 
pretensions dwindle when examined carefully. Quite 
a young man, whom we questioned, assured us that it 
was standing there when he zuas a boy. Port Antonio 
has rather a fine court-house and jail. On the hill are 
the Titchfield Trust (school) almshouse, and residences. 

There is in the town quite an American population ; 
greater in proportion to the size of the place than that 
of any town in the island. The business at Baker's as 
well as in some other places, is conducted by Ameri- 



150 The New Jamaica. 

cans, and there is quite a New England air about the 
place. To appreciate that, however, the visitor must 
first have seen some other parts of the island, and 
have become accustomed to the different tone which 
pervades the south side. Port Antonio's population is 
about two thousand souls. 

The hurricane of 1 880 did a great deal to damage 
the fruit interests of Portland, but it soon recovered 
and redoubled its enterprise. 

There is, thrice yearly, a fair for the sale of stock in 
Port Antonio, and semi-weekly markets are held in the 
substantial building provided for that purpose. The 
Wesleyans and Baptists have each their place of wor- 
ship in the town, and these are well attended. Many 
of the houses are substantial and picturesque and the 
climate is delightful. Down about the wharves, 
where the fruit is brought in mule carts, drays and 
on the heads of the native black people, there is a 
considerable activity. Mr. Moodie, the representa- 
tive of the Jamaica Fruit Company, whose office 
is here, assured us that there are few of those who 
may be seen bringing the fruit into market in this 
way, who have not a little store of money or a bit of 
property, — provision made for a rainy day. 

Says a writer already quoted, writing of this same 
port : " If the people of Jamaica choose to exert them- 
selves to supply this demand, an era of prosperity, un- 
known in its history, awaits the island in its near 
future, and Jamaica might become the tropical garden 
of America." Over a limited area this prophecy is 
being fulfilled. 



Portland — Port Antoiiio. 



I5i 



Over the mountains winding down the road lead- 
ing into the country from Port Antonio, drops us 
into the rich valley of the Rio Grande. It is a road 
"not too good," as the negroes would say, yet better 
than most mountain roads in the United States. It 
is encumbered with some rocks and inequalities, and 
beautified by many windings. The country through 
which it passes is rich and fertile, well cultivated, and 
abundantly blessed with picturesque views and color 
bits. The Rio Grande, rising near Bath, twenty-five 
miles from the sea, flows through the heart of the 
banana country. It receives tributaries from the north 
side of the Blue Mountain peak. It is the second 
river in size in Jamaica, and one of the swiftest of those 
erratic streams that flow pleasantly within narrow lim- 
its one day, and the next sweep down, full and ter- 
rific torrents, angry and swollen by the rain-fed streams 
from the surrounding mountains. At one point on this 
river, a place where men with great bunches of ripe 
fruit, donkeys laden with well filled panniers, and even 
children carrying " pick'nies " smaller than themselves, 
cross and recross with safety, the erosion of the banks 
shows that not infrequently the wide stony bed must 
be covered with a flood several fathoms deep, where 
ships might ride if they could stand against so power- 
ful a current. 

All about Jamaica the waters of the rivers rise, or, 
as the native says "come down," (i. e. from the moun- 
tains) very suddenly, and often travellers have been 
imprisoned for days between two torrents, on a -strip 
of country when there can be found neither town 



152 The New Jamaica. 

nor lodging house. At such times he trusts 
to the ever ready hospitality of the Jamaican 
Creole. 

Along- the Rio Grande we find several of those con- 
ditions which are commonly counted among the 
advantages of Jamaica. There is sweet, pure air, and 
plenty of it ; a superabundance of clear sky ; a suffi- 
cient rainfall ; good soil, and an industrious and con- 
tented peasantry. 

Crossing the river by a ford from which a most 
bewitching view of mountains, wooded point and level 
mirroring pools may be enjoyed, we soon enter the 
property known as " Golden Vale," once a great sugar 
estate, but now converted to banana cultivation, under 
the enterprise of the Boston Fruit Company. This 
company has bought and leased a great many estates 
on the north and east end of the island, and its pro- 
moter and manager, Captain L. D. Baker, is looked 
upon as one of the greatest benefactors the island has 
known, through his wisdom and energy in introducing, 
fostering and conducting the immense banana trade 
of Port Antonio which, within a few years has revolu- 
tionized the trade, prospects, and even the habits of 
the people of this section. 

Golden Vale has an output of from twenty-five to 
thirty thousand bunches annually. It is only one of 
nearly a dozen estates belonging to Captain Baker's 
company, yet in the total amount of fruit shipped by 
the steamers of this line the proportion from its own 
cultivation is only about one-fifth. That is to say, the 
people, the peasants with small holdings on the moun- 



Portland — Port Antonio. 153 

tain sides and along the roads, are doing what they 
have never before had a chance to do in the " Land of 
Streams," and are independently working out their 
own salvation. 

It cost, we are told, about two pounds per acre to 
clear new land, and there is little in the market at any 
price, so that most of the holdings are leased. Since 
the introduction of the banana industry, properties 
which before could not be disposed of at any price, 
are now scarce and in great demand. 

It may not be out of place just here to describe the 
growth and appearance of a banana plant, for the ben- 
efit of those who have only seen the delightful fruit 
hanging in fruit or grocery stores. In general habit 
and growth the banana and plantain can scarcely be 
distinguished from each other. Both have a soft 
stalk, from four to eight feet in height, spreading out 
at the top in a cluster of great broad leaves, often 
fifteen inches in breadth and four or five feet in length, 
bright green, and translucent. When first unfolded, 
the leaves suddenly unroll, sometimes with a hissing 
report, and appear with unbroken edges and unsullied 
surface, across which the shadows of other leaves fall, 
and with which the wind toys. But in a very little 
while this play of the wind has split the great surface 
into a hundred transverse streamers, all attached to 
the central vein. Each plant bears one bunch of fruit 
which hangs with the " hands," or separate sections, 
curving upwards, the reverse of the fruit store method ; 
and from the end of the bunch, on a short green stem, 
is the blossom, a great heart-shaped, maroon colored 



*54 



The New Jamaica. 



plummet, about the size of a man's fist, or larger. 
The plant bears only one bunch of fruit. 

In planting bananas they are placed fifteen feet 
apart, and when a plant has finished its mission it is 
replaced by a sucker. 

At Golden Vale the whole landscape is one of rich, 
perfect cultivation : the fields of cane grown as 
fodder for the numerous cattle used upon the planta- 




tion ; the herds of oxen and droves of mules. Beyond 
the cane field are acres, hundreds of them, emerald 
with the ranks of bananas. Not far from the boun- 
dary of the old estate are the great stone buildings 
formerly used in the crushing of cane, the manufactur- 
ing of sugar and rum, storage and the preparation of 
indigo. These are now converted into shops, depots 
and school-houses. Most of the children in the neigh- 



Portland — Port Antonio. 155 

borhood of Golden Vale attend this free school, which 
is kept up by the bounty of the owners of the planta- 
tion, and it is a very pleasant sound to hear the hum 
of recitation, or the melody of song, from the grim old 
walls, where sounds of a very different nature once 
were heard. 

Upon the ruins of very extensive buildings near the 
top of a little hill stand the houses where the Busher 
(overseer) lives and directs. Near by, across a small 
valley, is a settlement or barracks, where the coolie 
laborers, of whom there are a hundred or more on the 
plantation, live in their unobtrusive way. 

Some national or religious holiday was being 
observed when we were there, and several of the men 
were engaged in decorating a little building like a 
doll's toy house with bits of tinsel and colored paper. 
This was to be used in some ceremonial. They were 
very polite in showing us this wonder, but we were 
warned not to touch it or to show anything but 
respect. 

We inquired respecting the prices paid for labor on 
a banana plantation, and found that a reaper might 
earn with industry seven shillings a day, while the 
trimmers and other laborers range from one shilling 
and sixpence to two and sixpence a day, the lowest 
price being paid to the women. 

Standing on the piazza of " Busher " Davis's house, 
and admiring the perfect view, we were soon informed 
that horses were ready for us. We mounted, and fol- 
lowing our leader, crossed the little stream that crosses 
the valley just beyond the buildings, and struck into a 



156 The New Jamaica. 

trail which led us into the hills. Higher and higher 
we mounted, finding at every turn more extensive 
views and a more exhilarating air. New fields, fresh 
cultivations, unimagined richness disclosed themselves 
to our eyes, as we wound in single file around the 
shoulders of the hills. Palm trees interspersed with 
the bananas. Bamboos hedged the emerald fields 
with their plumes. On the distant hill that lay 
between us and the slope on which is Port Antonio, 
there was pointed out to us a cut in the trees where 
the surveyor's line had been run in planning the pro- 
jected cable line by which, in future, bananas are to 
be transported to the shipping place. 

Finally we got on a sort of hog back ridge, where 
the soil was a deep red clay, and the out-cropping 
white limestone contrasted brilliantly with the earth 
and the plentiful foliage. At places where the ridge 
narrowed we could look down into a valley on either 
side, in one of which flowed the Rio Grande and in 
the other the Back water. We stopped to steal (?) 
mangoes from the never failing trees, to inspect the 
hillside garden, placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, 
where some peasant has raised coffee, pimento, yams, 
potatoes, Seville oranges, plantains, guava and a 
dozen other things. We must accept a " rose " (really 
Indian Jessamine) from a pretty peasant girl, and 
look at the boars' teeth which a lad in one cabin 
showed us, pointing with pride to his hound, by 
whose aid the wild boars were killed — " Over dere in 
de John Crow hills w'ere me daddy hunt 'em fer two 
day, sah." 



Portland — Port Antonio. 157 

Still upward the path goes. It is a precipitous trail. 
Inquiring how it came to be made, we learn the inter- 
esting fact that it was trodden first by mules, bearing 
copper ore from a mine several miles beyond the 
summit. The Golden Vale mine was in operation 
thirty years ago, and some good copper was got out ; 
but the distance from the market, and, it is said, a 
quarrel among the members of the company resulted 
in its abandonment. 

It will not be wise to close this chapter without 
more definite reference to the work and influence of 
the Boston Fruit Company, whose efforts at building 
up the fruit trade, in conjunction with the Atlas Com- 
pany and the Wessels Line, have made such an impor- 
tant difference in the condition of trade upon the 
north side of Jamaica. We make this mention here 
rather than in the chapter devoted to travel and com- 
munication, because the interest in the company cen- 
tres here in Port Antonio. 

The properties of this company afe in many cases 
tenanted by the negro peasantry, whose industry is 
stimulated, as we have already pointed out, by the 
fact that they are actually laying up money. The es- 
tablishment of many such schools as the one at Golden 
Vale, where the children of these peasants may be 
taught free, is one of the methods by which the com- 
pany is seeking to improve the condition of its ten- 
ants. The tenantry aggregate about twelve hundred 
souls. This, of course, includes all in different parts of 
Jamaica, not alone those near Port Antonio. 

Following is a list of the properties of the Boston 



158 The New Jamaica. 

Fruit Company : Bowden, which we have already vis- 
ited at Port Morant, and which is not only important 
as a shipping port, but is also a fit place for a sani- 
tarium ; its acreage is about four hundred. Philips- 
field, Williamsfield, Unity Vale and Elysium have 
each i ioo acres. Seamans Valley has iooo acres. 
Hermitage, whose output of nuts we have especially 
mentioned, contains 560 acres. Wyant, Upper Lay- 
ton and Red Hassel are the smallest of the principal 
properties, comprising only about two hundred acres 
each. Size is only comparative after all. The man 
who has 200 acres of good land in New England is a 
large land owner. Wentworth, Lookout, Fellowship, 
Prospect, Hermitage, Windsor, Paradise, Wheelerfield 
and Plantain Garden estate are properties that range 
from 450 to 900 acres each. Fairy Hill and Bound 
Brook each contain 1800, and Golden Vale rises to 
3500 acres, with all its dependencies. It is a noble 
aggregate. 

From the Hon. W. Bancroft Espent, the company 
has leased Spring Garden estate and four others. By- 
ram is a beautiful piece of fruit land. There is here a 
railway for tram cars, the only railway privilege on the 
island except that of the Jamaica Railway Company. 
This extends three miles. 

The shipping places of the Boston Fruit Company 
are at St. Ann's Bay, Ocho Rios, Oracabessa, Port 
Maria, Annotto Bay, Buff Bay, Orange Bay, Hope Bay, 
St. Margaret's Bay, Port Antonio, Blue Hole, Man- 
chioneal, Port Morant, Morant Bay and Yallahs Bay. 
At each of these places the company own properties. 



Portland — Port Antonio. 159 

The Boston Fruit Company run six steamers be- 
tween Boston and Jamaican ports. They are dis- 
patched semi-weekly. Their principal use is the 
carrying of fruit, but they have also each passenger 
accommodation for twelve people, the rate of fare 
being $50 for round trip, or $30 either way. As 
stated, these vessels make stops at all island ports. 



THE DISTRICT OF ST. GEORGE. 



We learned from Mr. Moodie, the representative 
of the Jamaica Fruit Company and one of the earliest 
handlers of bananas on the north side, that the fruit 
land in the neighborhood of Port Antonio is being 
eagerly watched for and bought up. Buying large 
quantities of fruit for shipment to " the States," he 
says that the supply is increasing rapidly with the 
growing demand. "And," added he, "don't think 
these people are poor because they are poorly clothed. 
Go to their churches, or, better still, attend one of their 
weddings. You will find the men in broadcloth, and 
the women in silks. Few of them are without little 
bank accounts. They will improve with their for- 
tunes. The man who works with a machete, in rags 
and tatters, rides a good horse and carries his silk um- 
brella on a holiday. The same class of people cannot 
do that outside of the fruit districts, and these facts 
answer the question whether they make more than a 
bare living here. Good clothes, better houses, savings 
bank accounts, all mean that there is enough and a 
little to spare." 

Which argument seems to us forcible. But let no 
reader of this rush to the other extreme of imagining 
that the negro has attained perfection because he is 



The District of St. George. 161 

partially emerging from his former brutish condition. 
He is still full of faults, given to all manner of unrea- 
sonableness, and prone to leave you in the lurch if you 
are obliged to depend upon him. He has still very 
hazy notions on many moral and social questions. He 
will sometimes provoke you into wondering why any 
sane person should have deprived his mother country 
of him. Then you notice that he begins to be self- 
respectful, ambitious for his children, more conform- 
able to law, cleaner in his house and living. To the 
question : Whence is this improvement? the answer is 
ready. It is threefold: A better government, freer 
education, and living prices for work. 

The Maroons, who long ago wrested a sort of liberty 
from the government, and who have lived for a great 
many years unmolested in the hills, enjoying certain 
privileges and immunities, come down also to trade. 
It is too early yet to predicate any sudden or immedi- 
ate change in their condition, but it is safe to say that 
with growing intelligence and prosperity, these people 
will become gradually merged in the common popula- 
tion. Nothing is so certain to break away barriers 
than an advantage on one side of the fence or another. 

Mooretown is now the nearest Maroon town. To 
reach it one must follow the same road that goes to 
Golden Vale, which is about half way out to the vil- 
lage. In the village live many of the principal 
Maroons. Further up the road the wild and beautiful 
Cuna Cuna pass is reached. Only on horseback can 
one advance as far as the pass. Having crossed it and 
enjoyed its coolness (and perhaps a sudden shower as 



1 62 The New Jamaica? 

well), the traveller descends by the bridle road that 
we have already used to Bath. 

The western coast of Cornwall, beyond Port 
Antonio, is as fruitful as the eastern is desolate. At 
some points the road is lost in a forest of cocoanut 
trees. 

The largest cocoanut grove on the island is that of 
Wentworth, the weekly output of which is over 20,000 
nuts. The Hermitage, at which we halted a few 
miles west of Port Antonio, is about one fifth smaller, 
being the second grove in size and productiveness in 
Jamaica. This is also one of those properties of the 
Boston Fruit Company whose immediate details are 
usually managed by intelligent, active young men of 
New England blood. In this case it was one of Cap- 
tain Baker's sons who did the honors of the place, 
showing us the (to us) wonders of cocoanut growing 
and the natural beauties of the neighborhood. We 
drove out to a very pretty and airy little iron bridge, 
whose light arc crosses the Swift River in a single 
span. Then back to the ford, where we parted reluc- 
tantly from our young guide. 

Perhaps (if the old resident will be patient with us 
for a few moments) it may not be uninteresting to 
those who have only seen the cocoanut in market to 
know that if they were to see the fruit growing they 
would not recognize it, probably. Indeed, it would 
take sharp eyes to look through an inch or two of 
enveloping shell and find the familiar nut hidden 
beneath. Picking cocoauuts should never, so say 
the experts, be allowed. A tree here takes seven or 



The District of St. George. 163 

eight years to mature ; but when it is of age it pro- 
duces clusters of nuts that are all clinging with their 
little separate stems to a common stalk. A tree may 
have a great many clusters growing at one time, from 
the very small ones to those that are ready to fall. 
For some reason not yet known to science, the bearing 
capacity of a tree is injured by the picking of its fruit; 
so that only the fallen are gathered. Then the work 
of husking must be done before the nuts can be 
shipped. This is done with a machete ; the heavy, 
fibrous, yellow outer husk with its pointed ends and 
three dull angles is cut away, and the cocoanut, greatly 
reduced in size, is marketable. It contains at this 
stage a quantity of the pleasant fluid known as^cocoa- 
nut water, and the firm meat is much softer and more 
delicate than is usually the case with the older nuts 
that have got to the Northern markets. To get 
" jelly " nuts, whose contents can be eaten with a 
spoon, they must be picked from the tree before they 
are quite ready to drop. 

While we are driving through this pleasant country, 
it may not be out of order to speak of another matter 
quite germane to the purpose of this book, and con- 
sider what the chance is for enterprising young men. 
The anonymous author in Blackwood's, already quoted, 
and generally sensible in what he has said on this sub- 
ject, makes a statement and a suggestion which does 
not, it seems to us, accord with wisdom. 

" There is every ground for reasonable belief that 
Jamaica now offers a remarkably favorable opening to 
the numerous class of young men, in England, who 



164 The New Jamaica. 

are unable to pass the examinations which are neces- 
sary for entrance to the army and civil service, not to 
speak of the more learned professions. Young men of 
this class have lately been shipped off to Australia, 
Africa, and America to seek their fortune, sheep-farm- 
ing, gold-digging, and ranching ; and we leave it to 
those who are interested in them to say whether they 
have, as a rule, gained fortunes, or made more than a 
livelihood, meagre out of all proportion to the rough 
life which they have led, and the toil which they have 
encountered." 

That is what Jamaica does not want. England has 
often shipped black sheep, and lame sheep out here, 
but they have not been the successes to which their 
countrymen usually point with pride. The only kind 
of a man who can expect to live in Jamaica is the man 
of clean habits. There is no climate that will kill off 
rakes and rounders faster than a tropical one will. 
The only one who can succeed here is he who exercises 
the same faculties that lead to success elsewhere. 
Only clear-headedness, pluck and habits of work will 
go further here than in most countries, as the land is 
not yet overstocked. There is a call for capital; there 
is a field for energy; there are opportunities in the new 
state of things that will make the intelligent invest- 
ment of either one profitable. 

Richard puts a period to these reflections by pulling 
up. 

"'Dis here is Lowlayton, gentlemen, what you 
wanted to fine." 

Lowayton, we have been told, is the place where 



The District of St. George. 



*S 



the traces of an extinct volcanic crater are to be found. 
The information was correctly and judiciously worded : 
traces of an extinct crater, certainly, inasmuch as 
that which has evidently been thrown up by a volcano 
is good evidence that the volcano has at some time 
existed. We have also every reason to be satisfied 
that this volcano has been very extinct for some time. 
However, as this is the " only volcanic formation " 
noted on the island, we 
must e'en make the 
most of it. 

Near the Spanish 
River we halt and so- 
journ as guests at a 
house on the hill-side, 
the courtesy and hos- 
pitality of whose in- 
mates would launch us 
into description and 
acknowledgment, did 
they not more strongly 
compel us to silence. 

In this neighborhood 
is much to excite inter- 
est. The sugar producing will here soon give place to 
fruit growing. The hills produce logwood, and coffee 
is raised in the vicinity, we understand. Nuts too are 
quite plentiful. The hills are full of delightful nooks, 
and woods, and watercourses, for the lover of nature. 
On one occasion we rode along a bridle path to its 
end, and then, following a sturdy negro, who went 




1 66 The New Jamaica. 

slashing with his machete through the brush, we came 
suddenly upon one of the most perfect little streams 
that ever an artist imagined. Its beginning (for us), 
was a cascade of some sixty feet in height, that shot 
like an arrow from the fern-covered rock crest to a 
circular, clear pool, whose further margin had burrowed 
away and hidden under the base of the rocks, and 
around which all manner of trees and wild plants grew. 
The cotton trees reached out their great buttresses 
towards it, balancing the heavy spread of foliage over- 
head. The wild tamarind and the locust, or, if not 
these, some other equally native and beautiful trees, 
stretched out their arms and dropped long branches 
of vine, like plummets, down to the water. 

From here the brook goes, like any brook in any 
other land, doing all the usual erratic and charming 
things that any other brook does, till it goes to join 
some larger stream. There are moments of dignity: 
pools placid and calm, but just over the edge of them 
the frolic and rush begin again. If among our readers 
there is a poet who cares for a suggestion, — ? 

Over the Spanish River a new bridge was in process 
of construction. The honest work being bestowed 
upon it, and its solid character, are in keeping with 
most of the work of this class done in the island. 



FROM BUFF BAY TO THE ROARING 
RIVER. 



CROSSING several little streams and an occasional 
hut or hamlet by the wayside ; enjoying the glimpses 
of the mountains in the distance, or the verdure of the 
hills near at hand ; pausing at the fords to water the 
horses, and to exchange badinage of an elemental 
character with the half aquatic women, we at length 
arrive at Annotto Bay, where it is proposed to satisfy 
a growing inward yearning after the flesh pots. 

Having ordered luncheon at the principal lodging- 
house in the town, a little dingy looking place nearly 
opposite the market and bank, we strolled back to 
inspect the bridge being built over the Annotto River. 
A constant stream of people were passing over the lit- 
tle foot bridge below the ford. Among these were 
many coolies, more than one usually sees even upon a 
market day. White turbans, close fitting skull caps, 
loose upper garments and bare legs, faces like those of 
Europeans, intellectual and dignified, bearded and 
venerable, thin, wiry bodies and erect carriage ; so the 
crowd of coolie men go by, returning our salutations 
with grave courtesy. A military salute, with the fore- 
finger touching the forehead and the palm turning 
outward with the completed gesture, and the one 



1 68 



The New Jamaica. 




From Buff Bay to the Roaring River. 169 

word "Salaam," seriously spoken. The women, of 
whom we have seen many elsewhere, are also present 
in force, and so are the negroes of all grades. 

Up and down the river, from the framework of the 
new bridge, we saw the bending plumes of the bam- 
boos and the green of cultivated fields backed by the 
hills. It would not have been difficult to imagine 
ourselves in a suburb of Benares. The sunshine be- 
came broiling hot. We stopped to watch some men 
trading and selling horses, and then started on a tour 
of inspection of the shops: it being Saturday, they 
were thronged with people buying what the crowded 
market could not furnish them. A dry goods store, 
so full that one could hardly turn around in it, was an 
epitome of Macy's or Wanamaker's. In a drug store 
there was a man dealing out spirits in the rear and 
another in front selling cheese. 

The market place was filled with the people, buying, 
selling, chaffering and making a medley of sound 
that did not present one intelligible word to the 
stranger. Squatting on the ground, seated on 
benches, standing in corners or along the fences, 
what a motley multitude they were. The wares ex- 
posed for sale were tempting (until we had lunched). 
There were bread-fruit and nuts, yams and potatoes, 
— sweet potatoes, of course,— plantains, ginger cakes, 
cassava wafers, crabs, eggs and poultry, turtle (think 
of them baked and served in the shell), confections, 
made of cocoanut and brown sugar, and all the various 
things that can be grown or prepared or cooked to 
tempt the Creole appetite. 



170 The New Jamaica. 

But we were allowed to satisfy ours with more 
familiar viands. Ham and eggs followed a soup over 
which prudence prompted to say grace without inquis- 
itiveness ; boiled yam was vis-a-vis to fried plantain ; 
and the maiden who served the table was brown and 
inclined to be coquettish. 

We had several places in the town to visit and so 
did not linger. 

The town of Annotto Bay is the second in size and 
importance in St. Mary. It lies near the mouth of 
the Wag Water: the Agna Alta, — the Loud River. 
A shipping port, it has, in the past, done considerable, 
business, but has latterly fallen somewhat from its mer- 
cantile estate. One great drawback to the town is the 
proximity of marshes which breed fevers and malaria 
at certain seasons of the year. It possesses some 
good buildings: the court-house and savings bank, 
hospital, church, and Baptist and Wesleyan chapels. 
The new junction road, which we have followed from 
Kingston as far as Castleton Gardens, meets the coast 
road at this point. Near here are the Port Maria 
water works. Were it not for the overflow of the sev- 
eral streams into which the Wag is here divided, and 
the consequent ill health which strangers are apt to 
endure in the wet season, there is no reason why 
Annotto Bay should not be one of the chief ports in 
Jamaica. And the obstacle is by no means an insu- 
perable one. 

From Annotto Bay the road makes a wide sweep, 
leaving the coast, which here lies northwest and run- 
ning nearly west to a place called the Cross, where is 



From Buff Bay to the Roaring River. 1 7 1 

the junction with another highway which leads to the 
southward, crosses the Flint River, follows the course 
of the Rio d'Oro and meets the Spanish Town and St. 
Ann's Bay road at a point midway between Bag walk 
and Linstead. For a pleasant three days jaunt one 
could leave Kingston by the Annotto Bay road, enjoy 
Stony Hill, the Wag Water and Castleton as we have 
described, and then, instead of returning by the same 
way, keep on to the north coast, taking the western 
road from the mouth of the Wag Water and returning 
by way of Bog walk and Spanish Town. The entire 
trip is not more than sixty-five miles, and there are 
few outings that promise more of beauty and interest 
than this run around the block. Over a large part of 
this route the railway branch will run when completed, 
and the fact that the trains will first reach the coast at 
Annotto Bay and afterwards connect that point with 
Port Antonio, means that the history ot the little 
town is still ahead and not behind it, — a rare good 
thing for a town, as it is for a man. 

Turning northward from the Cross, and passing the 
mail coach on its way from Port Maria to Ewarton, 
we arrive, near nightfall, at the former town, drive 
through a long squalid looking street, which hardly 
seems to be attractive enough for the chief town in the 
parish, and pull up with a flourish (it is a little way 
that Richard has) at the door of a dingy and repulsive 
looking inn opposite the public hospital. We hesi- 
tated about alighting, till assured that there was no 
other lodging-house open to the public in Port 
Maria. 



172 The New Jamaica. 

We had plenty of time to study the hospital, with 
its corrugated iron roof and latticed sides. It looked 
clean and cool, and that is a distinction in Port Maria. 
It was Saturday night. The streets were full of 
the marketing people ; occasional drunken sailors stag- 
gered into the scene and out again, like supernumer- 
aries that had been displaced ; the altercation over a 
game of something that was going on in the busy 
lower room of the inn, waxed louder. There was an 
agent for something or other who had got the best 
room the hostelry afforded, so we had to take second 
and third best. Our supper was served in a dirty 
back room, and it took both hunger and courage to 
attack it. We soon got out to inspect the town. 

" Puerto Sancta Maria," is not living up to its name. 
It has a good harbor, wharves and stores. It contains 
a church, kirk and two chapels ; it is blessed with an 
almshouse and a fine prison. But it, unfortunately, 
has also that inn. 

Crossing a bridge over the river which divides the 
town, we came suddenly on a group of buildings 
that decidedly astonished us. There was the church 
already alluded to, a solid, substantial stone edifice, 
with a clock tower. Standing near it is a fine large 
market building, with open sides and corrugated iron 
roof. Opposite to these is a group comprising the 
court-house, constabulary depot and offices. These 
are structures that a much more thriving and interest- 
ing town than Port Maria might be proud of. They 
were built, we were told, at a day when the place had 
more to recommend it to the visitor. Interviewing a 



From Buff Bay to the Roaring River. 173 

sergeant of the constabulary force as to the behavior 
of the population (and as we asked we could hear the 
sounds of a street row in the neighborhood of our inn), 
we were told that the arrests made were very few. 

" Then you don't arrest people for intoxication, — 
getting drunk and being disorderly P " 

" No, sah, of co'se we neber arres' a ma'an for a 
ting like dat." He spoke in a grieved tone, as though 
we had insulted the force. 

The loud talking, liberal profanity and occasional 
expostulation on the part of the proprietor of the inn, 
did not lull us to sleep that night. We saw the agent 
for something or other drown his sorrow at having 
to stay in such a place, after which he attempted, 
from the window, to put a policeman, down in the 
moonlight, through the manual of arms. The cracks 
in the floor were sufficiently wide to allow us to see 
who was getting the best of the row below and it was 
long before we trusted ourselves to the joys of not 
too clean pillows and the companionship of numerous 
bed-fellows who were not paying ten shillings a night 
for the accommodation. 

We left Port Maria on Sunday morning. 

On the road we asked Richard how he had slept, 

and where. 

«Me? I sleep fus' rate, sah. I sleep in de 

bu sgy-" ^ . , , 

We pass the town of Ora Cabessa, with its many 
acres of nuts and fruit. There are steamers in the 
little harbor and sailing craft along shore. It is a 
rising place, and situated in a healthful part of the 



174 The New Jamaica. 

coast. Ora Cabessa River flows near it and debouches 
into a pleasant bay. Larger and more important is the 
stream of the Rio Nuevo, emptying into the Rio 
Nuevo Bay, where is situated a town of the same name. 
Here once was an old fort, built by the last of the 
Spanish governors in his futile attempt to reconquer 
the island from the English. 

And now we come to the White River. It is the 
dividing line between the parishes of St. Mary and St. 
Ann. Before crossing it we take a backward look 
over the district we have left, and consider its chances 
in the trade revival which seems to be beginning along 
this coast. There is little cane grown in St. Mary : 
most of the cultivation is in fruit and ground provis- 
ions. The most startling effect in foliage, probably, 
that ever greeted the eye, is that sea of cocoanut 
tops interspersed with bananas that grows at Ora 
Cabessa. As before stated, the chances for Annotto 
Bay seem almost brilliant, in view of its situation and 
probable steam communication with the south side of 
the island. Port Maria, if it holds its own, will have 
much to do. 

St. Ann, into which we are entering, is the spot to 
which most Jamaicans point with pride. " Have you 
been to St. Ann's Bay? Ah ! then you will see some- 
thing worth seeing. That is Jamaica's garden." 

That depends upon the eyes with which one sees. 
To perception attuned to English parks, high cultiva- 
tion and an air of serene thrift, St. Ann is satisfying. 
It has all the outward visible signs of prosperity in its 
rolling fields and the green of its perfect verdure, but 



From Buff Bay to the Roaring River. 175 

the ruggedness and the picturesqueness of the moun- 
tainous land is gone. We have left the blue moun- 
tains behind us. St. Thomas-in-the-Vale affords but 
a distant and shifting background. The land has be- 
come simply moderately hilly, but is abundantly 
watered by streams of exquisite beauty. 

Here it was the Spaniards settled first. Columbus 
landed here, at Dry Harbor, and not far from the site 
of his approach the last Spanish governor, Don Sasi, 
fled in a little boat from the point known as Runaway 
Bay. There is a bay just a few miles beyond the 
White River, westward, on which is a town bearing the 
name of Ocho Rios. The ch in Ocho is pronounced 
soft by the inhabitants, in violence to its Spanish 
origin. CJiereras it used to be — the Bay of the Water- 
falls; a name certainly as descriptive as it was poetic. 
The present appellation, " Eight Rivers," does not do 
justice to the many streams that rush foaming down 
the slopes and cool their boiling little bodies in the 
sea. The harbor is considered a good one. The trade 
of the place as a shipping port is said to be on the in- 
crease, but its morality suffers from the fact that the 
English men-of-war visit it in order to give shore 
leave to their crews. 

Near here Don Sasi made his last stand. From 
Ocho Rios a branch joins the great interior road be- 
tween Ewarton and St. Ann's Bay. 

This neighborhood exhibits the most perfect natural 
irrigation imaginable. The ramifications of the Roar- 
ing River, which lies just beyond Ocho Rios, and the 
roaring of which can be heard for a long distance, are 



x y6 The New Jamaica. 

almost numberless, and are due to a peculiar habit the 
stream has of damming itself at every possible point. 
The water is full of lime and silica in solution, and 
these it deposits in walls which invariably check and 
deflect its own flow, turning it to the right or left 
where it industriously begins to build fresh dams and 
seek new channels. 

From, the work called "Picturesque Jamaica" we 
quote a description of the source of this singular 
stream. 

" This river rises, or rather appears, about two miles 
from the sea, issuing from among rocks in a shallow 
ravine with a large volume of water sufficient to fill a 
pipe three feet in diameter, and flows rapidly down a 
narrow channel to the falls or cascade. The only ap- 
pearance of water above the head is at the Blue Hole, 
Rio Hoe and Walton, near Moneague, ten or twelve 
miles away. The flow of water at the head shows 
clearly that it is not a spring, or the appearance of 
water percolating through the earth— like the Bog, a 
mile or so east— but the visible appearance of a large 
stream already formed and flowing in an unobstructed 
channel beneath the surface ; and it is a singular fact 
that the volume of water is seldom affected by either 
floods or drought, never dry, indicating a drainage of 
a large area. Considerable accession is made to the 
quantity of water before it reaches the falls, mostly 
from subterraneous sources." 

Where the road crosses the main stream there is a 
strong little stone bridge, from which one is startled 
by a view so strange and unusual that it seems to 



From Buff Bay to the Roaring River. 



177 



reverse all the laws of flow and growth in woods and 
waterfalls. There is a pellucid pool, calm, but flowing 
with a strong current, in which flourishes a grove of 
mountain cabbage (palm), anchovy pears, banyans and 
many other plants, ferns and vines, that usually choose 
dry places for their habitat. Roots form bridges here 
and there, by which the pool may be crossed at its 







lower end, and standing upon one of these, looking up 
at the cascades, which seem fairly to drop from the 
branches of the further trees, it is difficult not to give 
way to the impression that enchantment has been in 
some way responsible for this strange scene. The 
sight of mountain mullet turn our thoughts to more 
familiar channels. 

Leaving the trap, with Richard on guard, under a 



178 The New Jamaica. 

magnificent banyan tree that grows in a field to the 
left of the pool, we started for the great fall whose 
voice we could hear in the distance. It is over a mile 
from the road, and is probably 150 feet in height and 
175 in breadth. There is not one continuous sheet of 
water, but a myriad small cascades, feathery and 
brilliant, massed together, clustered, glancing at a 
hundred different angles, breaking into a thousand 
foam jets and playing with a broken rainbow that has 
got inextricably tangled among them. The habit 
that this eccentric stream has of throwing out terraces, 
ridges and dams is probably the cause of the bold 
promontory from which it falls. It has been built out 
inch by inch, and is still building, a living monument 
to nature's originality. 

Back of Roaring River, in the Pedro district, is a 
Wesleyan high school at a place called York Castle. 
A village which goes either by the name of Clare- 
mount or Finger Post is on a side road, near the 
junction of the interior St. Ann's Bay road with that 
to Brownstown. Where the St. Ann's Bay road 
joins the Ocho Rios branch is situated the town of 
Moneague, a growing inland village with the usual 
complement of church chapels and government build- 



ST. ANN'S BAY. 



We drive into St. Ann's Bay, a town whose popula- 
tion approaches 2000 souls, late in the day, having 
finally succeeded in leaving Roaring River and its at- 
tractions behind us. At St. Ann's Bay reside several 
gentlemen who are prominent in matters influencing 
the prosperity of the country ; and its business, espe- 
cially in fruit exports is rapidly increasing, and it has, 
in common with Port Antonio and Montego Bay, 
direct and regular communication with the United 
States. 

Not more than a mile away from the town was 
" Sevilla d'Oro " of the Spaniards: Golden Seville, 
founded by Don Juan de Esquivel, Jamaica's first 
governor. It seems almost incredible that in that 
early day, surrounded by what was then an unknown 
wilderness, there should have sprung up a city of 
which we read that the pavements of its cathedral 
extended two miles, that its theatre and palaces were 
splendid and its monastery world-famous. 

We found a quaint inn kept by Mrs. Watson, on 
the main street. We were satisfied with our quarters 
and fare, and sought no further. It is a pleasantly 
situated house, with wide inn yard and many out- 
buildings. The recent epidemic of hotel building 



180 The New Jamaica. 

had seized Mrs. Watson, and she had in process of 
construction an addition to the house. Later the 
Honorable Michael Solomon, Custos of the parish, 
showed us, on an elevation back of the town, the pro- 
posed site for a new hotel which it is hoped that the 
growing needs of the place will demand. 

A long interview with Mr. Solomon on the labor 
question showed that he stood as we had been led to 
expect, as a firm though not blind friend of the peas- 
antry. While seriously admitting the faults of the 
race, which he (in common with the unknown author 
of the Blackwood's paper, from whom he quoted) held 
to be the faults of children, he spoke confidently of 
their advance. 

He touched upon the fact that the plantations still 
put more money in circulation in the country than 
any other industry. 

While we chatted, a woman came in and begged, — a 
buxom black woman of thirty-five years. 

" I come to see de Custos, san." 

"Well?" 

" I waanteh few shillin, sah." 

"Have you no work?" 

" No maastah— please Gawd." 

" How many children have you ? " 

" I done got fifteen sah — dat all." 

It was only a loan she required and the Custos, who 
is usually the guardian and father, especially of the 
poor of his parish, seemed to think she deserved it. 

The house of Kerr & Co. dispatch a great deal 
of fruit and other produce to the United States, and 



St Ann's Bay and Brownstown. 181 

E. J. Wessels, a young American, has successfully 
established a business in this line that might well 
excite the envy of much older men. 

From Mr. Wessels we have since obtained informa- 
tion upon fruit culture, and especially banana raising, 
which is as interesting as it is valuable, both to him 
who gathers facts for their own sake and to the practi- 
cal business man who intends to use his knowledge as 
an investment, with his capital. 

The good season for bananas (or rather the best 
season) is from March I, to July I, four months of 
good prices, which are followed by eight months of 
poorer. 

Prices at the best are £\t> per hundred bunches, and 
at the poorest £$ per hundred. When not grown 
three miles from the shipping place it is estimated 
that it costs £4 per one hundred bunches, to produce 
the fruit. The margin of profit is not so high as it 
seems, however, when we consider that a hurricane 
may occasionally mow down an entire crop ; a remote 
contingency which, however, must be provided for. 

At one time there was a great scarcity of inland 
transportation, to obviate which E. J. Wessels and 
Captain Baker exported great ox wagons to be used 
for this purpose. These the growers hire at a reason- 
able rate and thus are enabled to bring larger supplies 
to the market, to the benefit both of themselves and 
the shipping houses that handle the fruit. 

The gross earning of an acre of bananas in one sea- 
son is calculated to be at least £7 10s., which yields a 
tidy profit to the cultivator. Owing to the difference 



1 82 The New Jamaica. 

in soils the maturity of the fruit varies from nine to 
twelve months from the time of planting. It is most 
important to know this. One understanding the soil 
of any particular place, and being able to tell how 
long it will take the plants to bear will time his culti- 
vation so as to take advantage of the higher prices of 
the spring market. 

A good crop may be very much lowered in value 
by bad handling. Many growers crowd too many 
bunches into a dray in order to save transportation 
and so injure a great deal of fruit. Others cut and 
bruise the bunches by wrapping in "trash" (dry 
banana leaves, etc.) for transportation. The " trash " 
should be well watered and softened before binding 
the bunches. 

At present, Mr. Wessels is making practically the 
first experiments that have been made towards the 
use of fertilizers. In many localities the natural pro- 
ductivity of the soil is such that it would laugh at 
such expedients. 

As a final suggestion to any one who would embark 
in banana growing, test your soil first. Not all soil 
will grow bananas at a profit to the cultivator. The 
foregoing notes in the main apply as well to Port 
Antonio and all other fruit growing districts in 
Jamaica. The conditions are largely the same. 

St. Ann's Bay possesses a handsome market, over 
the gate of which is a clock presented by Mr. Solo- 
mon, a few years ago. There are also three churches, 
Episcopal, Wesleyan and Baptist ; a court-house, con- 
stabulary station, goal and hospital. 



St. Ann's Bay and Brownstown. 183 

On our way out of the town we pass the place 
where Golden Seville flourished, and where the great 
monastery and abbey stood in days of yore, but 
though we searched carefully over ground where they 
stood we found nothing, absolutely, of a city which 
owed allegiance to a Columbus, of a great religious 
establishment within whose walls the name of Peter 
Martyr was potent. 

There is a village in St. Ann that goes by the unin- 
viting name of Dry Harbor. That would suggest that 
it possesses prohibition principles, but the fact is that 
water is the scarce article. There is no fresh water at 
Dry Harbor except what is caught from the clouds in 
tanks, yet the place flourishes and trade increases. In 
the vicinity of this town it was that Columbus, upon 
his second voyage of discovery, landed, and took for- 
mal possession of Jamaica. 

The neighborhood boasts a number of caverns. Not 
so brilliant and attractive as those of Kentucky or 
Virginia, but still very interesting to the visitor. 
Water percolating through white limestone does not 
offer the finest results in stalactites and stalagmites ; 
still there is much to challenge the attention and waken 
imagination, as one proceeds a little way into the 
depths and views the intricate multitude of passages ; 
dark labyrinths, that extend, for aught that is known 
to the contrary, for miles and miles under the hills. 
Doubtless there are lakes and lost rivers back there in 
the shadows. Many a sink hole drains the surface 
above and takes the water into some subterranean pas- 
sage. Driving over the hills for long distances the 



184 



The New Jamaica. 




Si. Ann's Bay and Brownstown. 185 

carriage wheels woke an echo under the road that 
sounded like distant thunder. Probably all the west- 
ern end of St. Ann is undermined, and perhaps ready, 
in time of some great siesmatic disturbance, to subside 
and change its topography, as did Port Royal and the 
southeast once. The rushing of those subterraneous 
streams " robs the pillars " of nature's mine, and a tre- 
mendous down-fall of the upper crust is the result. 

Let us hope, for the sake of so gentle a saint, that 
the parish named in her honor will not suffer such a 
catastrophe. 

Looking back from the road to Brownstown, the eye 
beholds again those waving green fields and garden-like 
plantations that help to make St. Ann so famous. 
The road is built on the hillside and terraced well in 
some places. One side often presents a bank of fern, 
a bed of begonias or a cluster of broad-leaved " May 
Poles," while on the other the wild fig and the Spanish 
bayonet barely find foothold. 

The soil changes to the deep red hue which affords 
so brilliant a contrast with the outcropping limestone 
that appears everywhere, and the vivid green of the 
fresh fields and leaves. Huts by the wayside, framed 
with bamboo, wattled with rush or cane and thatched 
with dry banana leaves, have been daubed for preser- 
vation with the clay, which is so like ochre in its qual- 
ity that it has been used in paint. As the clay in 
various localities varies, so the colors of the houses do, 
from chrome yellow to a deep maroon. These, with the 
brilliant white of the walls, make a startling land- 
scape. 



i86 



The New Jamaica. 




St Ann's Bay and Brownstown. 



187 



Brownstown is one of the prettiest, trimmest little 
places imaginable. The tumble-down, squalid, sordid 
appearance that one or two towns on the coast possess, 
that look as though they had seen their best days, is 
utterly lacking in Brownstown. It has a clean, bright 
aspect about it, from the " Norman " New Market 
(named after Sir Henry W. Norman), at the foot ot 




the hill, to the Tabernacle built by the evangelist, Dr. 
Johnson. Being a hill town, there is little level walk- 
ing possible in Brownstown, but the air is so good that 
under its influence the hills forget to be fatiguing. 
Dr. Johnson is the presiding genius of the place : 
preacher, physician, builder, photographer and adviser 
to half the population. We are indebted to his excel- 
lent photographs for some of the illustrations of this 



j 88 The New Jamaica. 

book. The people find his tanks almost miraculously 
filled in time of drought, and the supply free to all who 
ask, while others are selling water. 

We will not say that he is beloved by all, because he 
is too forcible a character for that ; but a great many 
men would be proud of his personal following. 

Brownstown is the commercial clearing house for 
the hill region of the interior. One of the leading mer- 
chants, Mr. Levy, has a number of shops, carrying a 
stock that might suggest big possibilities to American 
manufacturers and wholesale merchants. 

There is in Mr. Levy's employ an old man whose 
general usefulness is acknowledged and whose eccentric 
views are evidenced by a coffin which he had made for 
himself several years ago and which, having it hanging 
where he can feast his eyes on it every day, he 
enjoys in anticipation. For thirteen years it has 
waited for him. 

Besides the buildings noticed there is in Brownstown 
a good court house and police station } a very pretty 
Episcopal church, a Baptist place of worship and a re- 
markably comfortable, clean, and inviting lodging, kept 
by one Mistress Delisser. 

Stewart Town, on the Brownstown and Falmouth 
road, is principally noteworthy for having in its imme- 
diate neighborhood one of those sudden resurrections 
that seem to be the peculiar characteristic of the rivers 
of this part of the island. 

The Rio Bueno, which was probably the Sink River 
in the southern part of Trelawney, bursts suddenly 
from the ground and escapes to the sea, and is the 



St. Ann's Bay a?id Brownslown. 189 

boundary line between the parishes of St. Ann and 
Trelawney. It empties near the town and bay of Rio 
Bueno, once an important shipping port. 



FALMOUTH AND VICINAGE. 



The Martha Brae is a river that is uncertain 
whether it should run like Aph, the sacred river de- 
scribed in the poet's dream, " through caverns, meas- 
ureless by man," or whether its best course is a frank 
above-ground one. Doubtless its first appearance was 
in the Mouth River,, that drops quietly into its burrow 
after awhile and defies pursuit or detection. From 
the place where it comes to daylight again the' Martha 
Brae runs a sinuous course to a town once known as 
Melilla, near Falmouth. That was a place that the 
Spaniards built when they first landed in Jamaica and 
afterwards abandoned. It is now known by the name 
of Martha Brae. 

All the world knows that the powerful loadstone 
which drew most Spaniards to the New World was 
gold ; and Martha Brae has its golden legend. 

In Sir Augustus J. Adderley's sketch of Jamaica 
appears this paragraph : 

" In the ' Notes to Thomas Burton's Diary ' (Claren- 
don State Papers), will be found this curious remark: 
— The secret golden mine which hath not yet been 
opened by the King of Spain or by any other is four 
miles from Mestan towards the east. It is near the 
way towards Mellila. The earth is black — rivulets 



Falmouth and Vicinage. 191 

discover the source of the mine. The name Sevilla 
has survived, and is now the parish of St. Ann, and a 
French author tells us, writing in 1660, that the town 
of Ovistan, built by the Spaniards, is not far from a 
bay or river in which the Bluefields River disgorges 
itself. Bridges has also traced the spot where once 
stood the town of Millila on the banks of the Martha 
Brae River, so that we have Sevilla in St. Aims 
Ovistan in Bhie field Bay, and Millila on the banks of 
the Martha Brae. The so-called secret gold mine 
must therefore be somewhere in this region, if it exists 
at all. The story goes that the Spanish Governor, 
Don Pedro d'Esquimel, extracted the secret of its 
existence from an unfortunate Indian chief by the 
usual means of torture. The wretched man had 
appeared before his Excellency only too magnifi- 
cently decorated with golden ornaments, and thereby 
awakened his appetite for possessing a knowledge as 
to the spot whence the chief obtained such riches. 
" 'Were I to search for the famous secret mine,' says 
Bridges, * I should look for it on the Maxfield estate 
and in the neighborhood of Trelawney.' " 

Falmouth has a population of between three and 
four thousand souls. Its pride is in its public build- 
ings, its water supply and its histoiy. Its prison 
buildings are unusually fine and well kept, though 
fortunately not unusually full. The court-house in 
the centre of the town, is one of the best on the 
island, contains offices for nearly all the parochial 
boards and officers, and has a ball-room of delightful 
size, upon the walls of which are two full length por- 



192 The New Jamaica. 

traits of former governors of Jamaica. The churches 
of Falmouth are fine edifices, the Baptist chapel 
being especially so. There are military barracks ca- 
pable of containing 700 men, but at present a force of 
about thirteen " constabs," occupy (?) them. To get 
to the almshouse and prison the shortest path is across 
a causeway which divides as fine a musquito nest as 
any place can boast. The water supply drawn from 
the Martha Brae is stored in a large tank in the cen- 
tre of the town. Thence it is distributed by pipes, 
or drawn by the people, who come with their various 
vessels to draw. 

Though still important, there is a general complaint 
that the business of Falmouth has fallen off of late 
years. This is supposed by some to be due to the great 
rock in the harbor's mouth, which is a very serious 
impediment to large steamers. The old sailing craft 
being smaller did not find the same difficulty in escap- 
ing it. Until that rock is blown up and the harbor 
made safe, Falmouth must expect to lose by it. 

Some of the business men and land-owners of the 
vicinity complain of a scarcity of labor. Everywhere, 
where there is such a shortage, the sugar planter feels 
it first. The estates have less hold on the laboring 
people than any other class of employment. But the 
majority of people in Falmouth are disposed to be 
very serious over the scarcity of employment which is 
a more vital matter. As yet the district produces 
little or no fruit. 



MONTEGO BAY. 



One of the best places in Montego'Bay from which 
to view the town is the large house kept as an inn by- 
Mr. Payne. There are other lodgings in the town, but 
Mr Payne's is one of the pleasantest and best on the 
island. Its windows overlook the harbor and from 
its vantage above the heat or the night dampness of 
the lower land, we are inclined to believe that beauty 
is, after all, the thing most to be valued in life 
(after a good dinner), and we have secured them 
both. 

Under the guidance of Mr. Corinaldi, the United 
States Consular agent, we visited the court-house and 
the church, admiring in the latter some good statuary, 
studying the mortuary tablets with which the floor is 
paved, and mounting under the fine-toned bell to the 
tower from which the amphitheatre of hills can be 
viewed that surrounds the town. 

In that church we were shown the memorial erected 
years ago to a good and beautiful woman — good, 
according to the inscription on the marble, and beauti- 
ful by tradition. Yet this gentle saint was pointed 
out to all comers for many years as an utterly de- 
praved character, a murderess, in fine, whose hands 
had been dyed with the blood of her own husband. 



i 9 4 



The New Jamaica. 



Time is a great indicator. One day some one dis- 
covered records which clearly proved that not this 
woman but another of the same name had committed 
the deed for which for years this marble has blushed. 
In spite of the contradiction (which may not yet have 
reached the land where avenging ghosts have their 
habitat), there was when we called a tiny spot of fresh 
blood on the stone at the base of the monu- 
ment. 




While we are loitering within the sacred walls there 
is much to be seen in the busy town. Montego Bay 
has a population of four or five thousand people. It 
is commonly supposed to rank next to Kingston in 
commercial importance. Messrs. J. E. Kerr & Co., 
the owners of a steamship line running to the United 
States, have their headquarters here, and the Atlas 



Montego Bay. 195 

Company's vessels and others visit its harbor regularly, 
having their agents in the place. 

The name originally was Manteca Bay, " Butter 
Bay," or, rather, " Lard Bay," for it was in the latter 
commodity that the Spaniards dealt most extensively. 
A general shipping business in the staples of the 
country has been largely augmented by the increasing 
fruit trade, and it is said that many properties in the 
neighborhood which have been considered almost 
valueless, have become profitable as fruit lands. Be- 
sides this the people are more generally employed 
and are more contented. The chief buildings in the 
town are the court-house, the Episcopal Church and 
Trinity Chapel, the chapels belonging to the Wesleyan, 
the Baptist and the United Presbyterian denomina- 
tions, the custom house and the old barracks. 

We have referred to J. E. Kerr & Co., as having 
their headquarters in Montego Bay. That firm de* 
serves more than cursory mention, since its enter- 
prise has largely been the means not only of keeping 
Montego from the condition of decadence into which 
so many Jamaican seaports have fallen, but has 
actually built up and improved the commerce of the 
place to such an extent that now the outlook for the 
future is even brilliant. Added to this, their steam- 
ers are known to be among the fastest of those steam- 
ing among the West India Islands. The parish of 
St. James generally feels this impetus given to trade. 
Like most of the north ports Montego Bay's com- 
merce is largely with the United States. Montego 
Bay has, within a few years, been greatly improved 



196 The New Jamaica. 

from a sanitary standpoint by the rilling in of a swamp 
in the neighborhood. Of all the towns of the North 
and West this one has shown first interest in the 
Kingston fair. There is here a fine market, and the 
usual complement of public buildings. 



IN HANOVER AND WESTMORELAND. 



" HAVE you been to Lucea? Do you not think it 
one of the finest towns in Jamaica?" is a question 
which we have had frequently to answer. Lucea is a 
beautifully situated little town of nearly two thousand 
inhabitants. It is near the northwestern point of the 
island, where the coast begins to slope to the south- 
west. Its harbor is a deep, almost circular basin, 
much narrower at the entrance than inside, so that in 
approaching from the east we are much nearer the 
town when we first come in sight of it, than when a 
half mile further advanced in the road. The houses, 
business buildings and court-house are on low ground 
facing the east and north, while above them on the 
hills are pleasant residences, and picturesque grounds. 
Here also is a fine old church, and beyond it but a 
little distance, the clean and well-kept prison. The 
fort (Charlotte) at the entrance to the harbor has been 
converted into a constabulary station. Besides the 
Anglican Church Lucea has a Kirk and Baptist 
chapel below the hill. The climate of Lucea is rec- 
ommended as being exceedingly good, and statistics 
show the place to be a healthful one. We were told 
of one or two lodging-houses in Lucea but chose one 
that had been specially recommended to us, kept by 



198 The New Jamaica. 

Mistress Vosper. We found the lodgings fair and the 
board better. The only drawback was a drain or 
canal which a continued drought had left in a stagnant 
condition, running next to the house and filling the 
air with an odor that was not perfume. 

The Rev. Mr. Davis, rector of the Episcopal Church, 
is our authority for the statement that in Hanover 
exists the same scarcity of laborers that is complained 
of in other parts of Jamaica and for which there is 
suggested no remedy but immigration. At the time 
of our visit, early in July, we found a very slight 
awakening interest in the coming industrial exhibition 
at Kingston. Wherever such an interest has ripened 
it has been by active personal endeavor on the part 
of representative men, and largely through the estab- 
lishment of local preliminary fairs. 

We left Lucea on the morning of the 4th of July. 
Such of our readers as have been accustomed to re- 
gard the Stars and Stripes with reverence and affection, 
can understand how we searched (vainly) for a flag 
that should bear the familiar arrangement of red, white 
and blue. Nor were our efforts to secure a pack of 
" fire crackers " more successful. As we drove up into 
the hill country we tried to sound Richard's ignorance 
on the subject of American Institutions. He had 
heard that the Fourth was some kind of a thanksgiv- 
ing day, but he did not know who George Washing- 
ton was. Neither could he learn to whistle The Star 
Spangled Banner. We did our best, but it was a lone- 
some festival. 

Our anticipation of finding in the interior of Han- 






In Hanover and Westmoreland. 



199 



over the Switzerland of Jamaica was doomed to disap- 
pointment. The " Dolphin's Head " Peak that loomed 
up to the left of our road was certainly charming, and 
would be an ornament to any landscape, but it was 
not Alpine in its proportions nor in its contour, being 
two thousand feet high. Neither did the little cabins 
by the wayside resemble the Swiss chalets in anything 
but size. The vegetation seemed rather less tropical 
than that of the eastern end of the island. But it is a 
beautiful road, offering numberless surprises to the 
traveller and presenting at almost every turn some 
new delight in scenery. 

Our objective point was Savana la Mar, to which 
three roads converge. We were on the central one. 
The more westerly takes in the village of Green 
Island, and unites with ours at the border of West- 
moreland. The eastern road is a more direct course 
from Montego Bay. Some of the most valuable graz- 
ing pens on the island are situated in this part of it. 
Here is Knockalva, whose Hereford cattle are famous, 
and over whose thousands of acres of pasture land 
noble herds are bred and reared. Hanover has more 
than four times the acreage in pasture that it has in 
cultivation, and both together do not half equal the 
number of acres in woods and ruinate. The logic of 
such a fact leaves no room for argument on the ques- 
tion of under-populatiom 

We have passed many gardens where the famous 
"Lucea yam," which has been so valuable a product 
for export to Colon, is cultivated. To the west lie the 
hills between the Fish River and Negril's, beyond 



200 The New Jamaica. 

which are the marshes of Long Bay, which the alliga- 
tors are said to haunt. We have passed into West- 
moreland, and begin the descent through a sugar- 
growing country towards the plain of Savana la 
Mar, which, like Kingston, is built on low ground. 
The two greatest disasters of Jamaican history did not 
occur in the mountains. The earthquake which swal- 
lowed Port Royal was almost equalled in horror half a 
century later by the tidal wave which swept Savana 
la Mar and all it contained of human life and property 
from the face of the earth. We are struck (as we 
drive in through the rain which met us on the south- 
ern hillslope) with the appearance of the single, broad, 
central street which runs inland at right angles to the 
shore. The reason for this position is apparent ; the 
old city, the city of the tidal wave, having been built 
along the shore, at present the court-house, a half- 
mile from the wharves, marks the limit of that de- 
vastation. 

Savana la Mar is an important seaport with a 
population of between two and three thousand souls. 
It contains several large business houses, and has 
postal communication every day with other parts of 
the island. There are Episcopal, Wesleyan and Bap- 
tist Churches ; the building of the Wesleyan being 
new, and all the places of worship commodious and 
services well attended. The water supply is excellent. 
There is good medical attendance to be had in the 
place, we are told, though, fortunately, we have had 
no occasion to prove the accuracy of the statement. 
Nearly opposite the constabulary station we find lodg- 



In Hanover and Westmoreland. 201 

ing at a very pleasant little hotel, where clean beds 
and good food are furnished at a cost of iay. per day ; 
there are also several other lodgings in the town. 
Truth compels the admission that Savana la Mar 
is not a beautiful place, either for situation or architec- 
ture, as compared with other Jamaica towns. 

The town of Blue Fields, about eight miles distant, 
is worth visiting, as the site of Oristan, of the 
Spaniards, and also as the home of Gosse, the great 
naturalist. The cost of conveyance thither is is. 6d. 
per mile. Other places of interest in the neighbor- 
hood are Roaring and Amity caves. At a point called 
Paul's island some coolies have started the cultivation 
of rice, which bids fair to be a remunerative venture. 
Westmoreland produces besides this sugar and rum, 
coffee, spice, logwood and some fruit. 



,■ 



ST. ELIZABETH— THE SANTA CRUZ 
MOUNTAINS. 



Leaving Savana la Mar our road keeps near the 
coast through the southeastern part of Westmoreland 
and into St. Elizabeth Parish as far as the town of 
Black River. Beyond Bluefields we pass through the 
country of the Surinamese settlement. Crossing nu- 
merous streams, and journeying through a fertile 
country with many glimpses of distant mountains or 
of the nearer ocean, we approached one of the largest 
and most important of Jamaica's navigable streams. 
The Black River is about two chains in width near its 
mouth, where the town is built. It is there spanned by 
an iron bridge, that was erected several years ago at a 
cost of ,£1700. For thirty or forty miles of its sinu- 
ous course, as it winds over the lowlands and between 
the uncertain margin of an extensive morass, this river 
floats little vessels of eight or ten tons burden, which 
are used as lighters for logwood, thus shipped from the 
interior. There is in the town of Black River one 
long central street, not attractive to the visitor. Upon 
this street is the hotel. We looked out from the 
hotel at the " Daisy " lodgings opposite and wished 
that we had gone there : but perhaps, after all, we 
were as well off as we would have been elsewhere in 



St. Elizabeth — The Santa Cruz Mountains. 203 

the place. Of the " cleanness, civility and good attend- 
ance " promised on the neatly printed card of the 
Waterloo Hotel, we found an abundance of the sec- 
ond item and a moderate allowance of the others. 
Besides the " Daisy," there are the " Britannia" and 
private lodgings kept by Mrs. Allen. The cost of 
lodging and board is from 10s. to 12s. per day, which 
is the usual rate in other parts of Jamaica. The rule 
seems to be that at the best places one is charged 10s. 
and at inferior ones 12s. 

From Black River the road winds by the border of 
a wide and extensive morass, and is sometimes sub- 
merged for long distances. It crosses the Y. S. River, 
upon which at the distance of a few miles only, are 
the rather famous falls ; and after passing and repas- 
sing the loops and twistings of the Black River, begins 
to mount into the higher land towards the Santa 
Cruz Mountains. 

The Santa Cruz Mountains of the Parish of St. 
Elizabeth are famous as a health resort, though not so 
frequently visited as the region of St. Thomas ye 
East because of their less accessible location. Here 
in the hottest weather the nights are surprisingly cool 
and the wind at times blows almost a gale, while with 
two blankets we are quite comfortable in July. Yet 
the elevation is but little over two thousand feet, 
and the most desirable points can be reached from 
Black River by a three hours drive. 

The village at the foot of the mountains is Lacovia. 
Here the roads branch, one going by the way of Santa 
Cruz Square towards Mandeville, and the other into 



204 The New Jamaica. 

the Nassau Mountains. At Santa Cruz Square, 
a cool and pleasant village, there are lodgings to be 
obtained at a cottage near the road, and simple good 
fare is offered. Our Mecca is Malvern Hill, to reach 
which we must give the horses one of the hardest 
day's pulls they have yet had : but if horse kind enjoy 
those luxuries of life, the influences of air and sur- 
roundings, as human kind do, they were repaid for 
their work. 

Malvern Hill overlooks sixty or eighty miles of 
coast. One can stand on the breezy piazza of Mrs. 
Lawrence's pleasant home, where well accredited vis- 
itors are entertained at moderate price, and overlook 
the region from Savana la Mar to the Pedro Plains. 
It is at two thousand three hundred feet elevation, 
but its average temperature is from jo° to y6° in day- 
time and 6o° to 66° at night. The wind blows 
strongly always. At night, when one is safely shel- 
tered and blanketed in the well-built house, its surf- 
like roar is pleasant. The inland view is almost equal 
to that of the coast, embracing as it does a parallel 
ridge. Malvern is eight miles from Santa Cruz 
Square, forty miles from Porus, and ninety from King- 
ston. The shortest way to reach this point from 
Kingston is by coastal steamer to Black River, four- 
teen miles away, and then by carriage or in the saddle 
from the latter place. A double-seated " omnibus " 
from Black River to Malvern Hill' will cost 36s. ster- 
ling ; a single buggy about 10s. less. Saddle ponies 
cost less. 

There is not space to dwell upon the beauty of the 



St. Elizabeth — The Santa Cruz Mountains. 205 

lover's leap at the seaward end of the Santa Cruz 
Mountains, or of the great Pedro Bluff, that juts out 
boldly into the sea but a little way to the westward. 
We must not linger along the intricacies of roads and 




cross roads in which we were lost in trying a short 
cut to the main highway, nor rest after our tramp 
up " Seven Mile Hill," which we take partly because 
it is a pleasant day for walking and our legs are 
cramped with weeks of driving, and partly because " a 
merciful man js merciful to his beast." We solace 
ourselves with a " Ripley " pineapple and push on 
towards Mandeville. 

For many years the hill-region or plateau of upper 
Manchester has had a widespread reputation as a 
sanitarium. The Rev. H. Walder, a Moravian mission- 
ary who has had a wide opportunity to form an opin- 
ion, considers this region quite able to bear comparison 
with the healthiest regions in England or on the conti- 
nent of Europe. He compares it favorably with the 
Canton Zurich, Switzerland, quoting his experience 
with the small congregation at Mizpah. An average 



206 The New Jamaica. 

membership of 473 yielded but 60 deaths in twelve 
years, and during that same period there were 241 
baptisms of infants. This would seem to indicate a 
birth-rate four times as great as the death-rate. Of the 
60 whose deaths were recorded, one was one hundred 
years old, seven between eighty and ninety, seventeen 
had passed seventy years, six were over sixty, four 
died from accidents and ten as infants. Thus, allow- 
ing for accidents and the deaths of infants, over 67 
per cent, lived to be over sixty and over 54 per cent, 
passed man's allotted three-score years and ten. 
Truly a most wonderful record ; all the more wonder- 
ful when we consider Mr. Walder's closing words: 
" Taking furthermore into consideration the innumer- 

o 

able wettings which the generality of the people are 
exposed to, without even being able to put on a dry 
suit, and, in addition, the very great defects in the 
homes of the peasantry, in a sanitary point of view, it 
cannot be denied that the above facts speak loudly in 
praise of the climate in these districts." 



THE HOME STRETCH. 



We drove into Mandeville by a road that showed 
many signs of contented unthrift. There were miles 
of fertile country, an exquisite land to travel through, 
but inadequate cultivation on every side* 

Finally the houses became more numerous and 
much better than those we had been accustomed to 
seeing along the road, and we drove into a trim open 
square. In the centre of the square, with an acre or 
two of grassy common surrounding it, stands the court- 
house. At its right is a row of shops and other build- 
ings. At the side on which we enter, facing the court- 
house, is the church and several dwellings. On the 
left and on the rear are other dwellings, shops and 
offices. In that direction are also the hotel and one 
or two lodgings. Not far away is the house kept by 
Miss Roy, where Mr. Anthony Froude sojourned during 
his short stay here. His praise of her coffee has made 
it famous. We went however down the little hill to 
the hotel, Brooks', where we had no cause to complain 
either of lodging, fare or attendance. 

Mandeville, on its table land, is as charming a place 
to the eye as it is beneficial to the sense. Its general 
aspect is one of extreme neatness and prosperity, — and 
this in spite of the clay mud which we found omni- 



208 The New Jamaica. 

present, mud that was like paste, which clung in 
great yellow clogs to the shoes of whoever walked 
abroad. But who cares for mud in a climate like 
that? 

There are many points of similarity between most 
Jamaican towns, usually in the arrangement of streets 
and dwellings, and almost invariably in some sugges- 
tion of a historic flavor. But Mandeville, like Browns- 
town, seems new. It is not aggressive and unpleasant 
newness, but a neat and engaging condition of youth ; 
youth with plenty of color and tone. 

Our time and space are unfortunately limited : an 
unfortunate fact, for we are in a country where a limit 
is the thing least to be desired; there one should be 
allowed by Providence to roam on forever to study 
and to enjoy. 

We are in our places again, in the trap that has 
carried us well for over four hundred miles (may the 
Wagonette Company's shade never grow less), and 
Richard, — whose arrivals and departures are a matter 
of gaping wonder to the black people by the way, — 
takes the road with much whip-snapping. Out of 
sight of the houses of Mandeville our pace slackens 
into a steady jog, and we draw into a section with 
which our railway trips have made us familiar. This 
is the region of the Mandeville orange, well known in 
Northern markets from its size and flavor. The road 
is a more level one, with interesting features, but noth- 
ing as startling as we found at points along the North- 
ern side. All this part of the country is the best 
horse raising land on the island. 



The Home Stretch. 



209 



The little town of Poms, the present lower railway 
terminus, is reached and passed. There is nothing 
here to entice us to linger now, though the natural 
beauty of the surroundings of the busy and populous 
little place induce another visit. At May Pen we 
cross its handsome three truss iron bridge and wonder 
at the want of precaution that will permit the railway 
trains and a constant line of vehicles and foot pas- 
sengers to cross in common on the same structure. 

Thence to Old Harbor; or rather to the real town 
and railway station, two and a half miles from the 
original village of cabins and small houses which bears 
the name. At Spanish Town, from Mrs. Wilson's very 
pleasant lodgings, another stroll down the Rio Cobre 
renewed all the fascination of that beautiful stream. 
Its clear, ever varying water, shadowed by magnificent 
trees, is a perpetual delight. 

The road to Kingston is bright with- patches of 
cultivation and more and more filled with people as 
one approaches the metropolis. The great cotton tree 
known as Tom Cringle's tree spreads its giant arms 
over the road and challenges attention; but Jamaica 
has shown us, on its mountains and by-roads many a 
finer trunk and broader, loftier expanse of foliage than 
this. We have seen buttressed roots that would have 
walled a dozen cabins and a spread of foliage fit to 
shade a herd of a hundred grazing cattle. 

Finally we approach Half-way Tree, turn out 
towards Constant Spring Hotel and ere long have 
washed off the dust of travel and are answering ques- 
tions. 



210 The New Jamaica, 

" What of the island ? does it realize expectations ? " 

" Yes, and exceeds it." 

" And how about the living? " 

The answer is given to the reader in the preceding 
chapters. He who follows our itinerary will neither 
lack by the way nor suffer on his return. 

A number of points, not included in the accounts 
of our various trips, have more or less of interest attach- 
ing to them, in most cases from some one or two pecul- 
iarities of natural position or advantage. 

Among these are Milk River, noted for its bath of 
curative water, on the coast of Clarendon ; Morant 
Point, with its lighthouse, in St. Thomas ye East ; 
and several interior points out of the ordinary lines of 
travel. 

The unsettled Cockpit Country and Black Lands in 
St. James and Trelawney Parishes are "full of interest 
and well worth exploration. The mystery of lost 
rivers, of cavernous hills, of wild, weird forest tangles, 
of mysterious sink holes and sudden cliffs, lure one to 
adventure. North of the Surinamese settlement, 
which we passed in Westmoreland, where the Dutch 
Colonists set an example of industry to the other set- 
tlers two hundred years ago, there is a fertile country 
dotted with villages and estates. 

Bull Head, Chapelton and the district of Vere in 
Clarendon and Mount Diabolo, above St. Thomas-in- 
the-Vale r all invite the traveller. We have not climbed 
the John Crow Hills together to wonder at the re- 
cently discovered lake or morass at the summit of the 
ridge. We feel that we have neglected Buff Bay and 



The Home Stretch. 211 

have not done justice to Luidas Vale. We hope to 
be forgiven for our delinquencies. 

The Hotels law of 1890 insures the presence in many 
of the pleasantest parts of the island, of modern hotels 
largely managed according to the methods usual in 
the United States. In other localities very fair lodg- 
ing or boarding houses may be found, and in all of 
these the degree of comfort desired can nearly always 
be had for the asking, for the Jamaica landlord — or 
landlady more often — is full of the desire to make life 
comfortable for guests. 



TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICA- 
TION. 



IN writing of the pleasures, attractions and notable 
features of any country, he who does not also inform 
his reader how these advantages may be shared, is like 
one who exhibits a treasure chest and afterwards re- 
turns the key to his own pocket. • It is, at best, an un- 
satisfactory performance. 

It is within the scope of the present work to publish 
minute information regarding the means provided for 
travel and communication between Jamaica and the 
American Continent. 

We found, when contemplating a visit to the West 
Indies several years ago, a scarcity of information, 
which, considering the distance, was almost prohibi- 
tory. At last, when nearly ready to abandon the 
quest, we received a copy of the Atlas hand-book, then 
just published, which removed much of the difficulty. 

Perhaps it is because of that association and the 
pleasant experience of a first voyage that we begin 
our chapter on the means of communication with an 
account of the Atlas line. There is also another 
reason, however, and a better, which is, that the oldest 
and best line running from New York to Kingston is 
the one which flies the familiar blue flag with its 
white-centered red cross. 



Tra7isportatio7i and Communication. 213 

The company employs a fleet of twelve large iron 
steamships, of which several of the best carry passen 
gers and freight on the Jamaica route. The Adiron- 
dack, the last and largest of the fleet, with its 
comfortable arrangements and latest appliances of 
science ; the Alvo, stanch and steady as a church, 
ample as to state-rooms and satisfactory en cuisine ; 
the AtJios, Ailser, and Alene, all able boats and com- 
fortable carriers, are constantly on the way to and 
from the island. All of these vessels are well officered, 
and offer every inducement in the way of comfort and 
good service to the traveller. The advantage of hav- 
ing the saloon on deck has been often gratefully com- 
mented on by passengers who are subject to the 
discomfort of inal de mer, and would find it as impossi- 
ble to dine in an apartment below deck as it is easy to 
do so in comfort above. 

The trip to Jamaica.takes five and a-half days; half 
of that time being spent on pleasant sub-tropical 
waters, through the deep, constant blue • of the open 
ocean, or among the turquoise and emerald hues of 
the Bahama waters. One embarks at Pier No. 55, 
(New) North River, foot of Twenty-Fifth Street, 
whence an Atlas boat leaves every Saturday for 
Jamaica. In returning, the vessels leave Kingston on 
alternate Thursdays. By regular arrangement for 
round trip or excursion tickets, either the direct travel 
to and from the island may be enjoyed, or the voyage 
extended to include the circumnavigation of Jamaica, 
or a run over to Haiti, or even the interesting ports of 
Central America may be visited. 



214 The New Jamaica. 

Lately a regular steamer, the Arden, has been put 
on the Haitian route, stopping at various ports and 
running to Port au Prince. The Adula makes the 
coastal trip, stopping at all the principal insular ports. 
This is not only a delightful and instructive addition 
to the itinerancy of visitors and vacationists, but one of 
the best facilities afforded to business travellers, and 
an outing often enjoyed by Jamaicans. This coast- 
wise steamer sails from Kingston every ten days, 
alternately to the eastward and westward. Passen- 
gers may also connect, by excursion routes, with all 
the best European lines. 

But it is not only to the travelling public that 
the Atlas line affords peculiar advantages. Shippers 
find the convenience of transhipment to the coasting 
steamer in Jamaica, or enjoy the facility of having the 
port of destination on through bills of lading to Eu- 
rope changed, or goods stopped- and delivered in New 
York, if the company receive sufficient notice. Cargo 
may also be* transhipped at Kingston to the Royal 
Mail packets, through bills of lading being issued by 
the Atlas Co., in conjunction with the Royal Mail Co. 

The steamers of the Honduras and Central Ameri- 
can S. S. Co., leave New York every three weeks, 
making stop first at Port Antonio and then at Kings- 
ton, en route for Central America. They are about 
1,700 tons register and are fitted to carry passengers. 

We have spoken in another connection of the 
steamers of Messrs. E. J. Wessels & Co's line. 
Besides being a buyer and shipper of island produce 
this company has provided excellent passenger accom- 



Transportation and Communication. 215 

modations on its fast steamers. These are, like those 
of the Atlas boats, above the upper deck. The vessels 
sail from the north side of Jamaica (St. Ann's Bay) 
to New York, twice a week. 

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Co's. vessels carry 
freight, mail and passengers to and from Southamp- 
ton, via Barbadoes. The Clyde Line to Glasgow 
affords a monthly steamer. Its new steamship, the 
" Strathyre," is especially well noticed. 

J. E. Kerr & Co. are running good steamers to the 
United States from the North Side, as is also the 
Boston Fruit Company, whose Jamaican headquarters 
at Port Antonio we have already described. 

There is a strong probability of the immediate 
establishment of a line of small but fast and sea- 
worthy steamers to run between Galveston, Texas, and 
Jamaica. The line was organized last summer with 
the purpose of visiting Central and South American 
ports, taking Kingston, Jamaica, into the scheme. 

A still more recent mode of conveyance, especially 
desirable for those who wish to visit the Antilles, yet 
avoid the discomforts of a long sea voyage, is that 
included in the Plant system. This provides steam 
communication with our island by way of Tampa, 
Florida. This will enable the traveller to economize 
both time, money and strength, if he is one of the 
unfortunate ones to whom a period of five or six days 
on the ocean is less than a boon. The first steamer of 
this service was announced for October, 1890. It is 
impossible to give here further details. During the 
winter of 1890-91 the Tampa steamers will run fort- 



216 The New Jamaica. 

nightly, or possibly weekly, and their continuance 
beyond that season will depend entirely upon the 
success of the experiment. 

We have left to the last one of the most important 
lines now engaged in the transportation of passengers 
and freight to Jamaica. This is the Anchor Line, 
whose steamers are now plying between New York 
and Jamaica. 

On the third day of November, 1888, the Anchor 
Line of Steamships, whose transatlantic vessels are so 
well known to the world of travelling people, made its 
first venture in this field. The . Steamship Dorian, 
built for the Mediterranean fruit trade, was put on 
the Jamaica route and sent to Kingston, whence she 
visited all the principal island ports and returned 
straight from Jamaica to New York. The Dorian was 
shortly followed by the Tyrian, also designed for the 
Mediterranean trade, and these vessels have continued 
to ply regularly between the island and New York. 

Their trips are made fortnightly. They are mail car- 
riers, and the first mentioned, the Dorian, is fitted with 
passenger accommodations, although this line does 
not make a point of passenger service. 

The present accommodation of the Dorian is for 
about twelve first-class passengers. Besides the ves- 
sels described, the steamers Sidonian and Acadia occa- 
sionally make the Jamaica trip, but not regularly. 

The principal business of the Anchor Line in 
Jamaica at present is the shipment of fruit and other 
cargo. As stated, its route is a direct one to and from 
Jamaica. Stopping at Kingston first the steamers land 



Transportation and Communication. 217 

and take freight at Port Morant, Black River, Savana 
la Mar, Mont ego Bay and Lucea, St. Ann's Bay, Fal- 
mouth, Port Maria, etc., and thence at once to New 
York. To shippers the company offers the induce- 
ment of through bills of lading, via New York, to 
principal European ports, transhipping in their own 
vessels. 

It is proposed to add shortly passenger steamers, 
especially designed for the work, to those already in 
use. 

We should add a few more explicit words regarding 
inland travel in the island, giving a resume of informa- 
tion already detailed. 

Besides the railway, there is a mail coach which 
communicates with all the principal towns and affords 
means of travel usually three times a week, at rates 
which are less than those of carriage hire. From the 
Wagonette Company, in Kingston, one of whose con- 
veyances we used in our trip ' round the island, can be 
procured good horses, wagonettes and buggies. As to 
its drivers, — you have already made Richard Davis's 
acquaintance. Its charges are not materially different 
from those of Bolton and other livery stable keepers. 
£1 per day is the usual rate for a double trap retained 
for any length of time, though when taken for a single 
day or short trip the rates are of course much higher. 
In Kingston the average price is 6d. a mile : for a day 
30-S-. to 35J. for busses. In Hanover, Clarendon, St. 
Catherine, Portland or St. Mary there are no livery 
stable keepers. Good saddle ponies are hard to get. 

At Savana la Mar J. B. Jones charges at the rate 



218 The New Jamaica. 

of is. 6d. per mile. Fair conveyances can be obtained 
in Porus, Mandeville, Falmouth, Brownstown, St. 
Anns, etc. At Gordontown, Bolton keeps good 
saddle horses for mountain riding. 

The tram cars run from Kingston to Halfway Tree 
and Constant Spring carrying passengers at a charge of 
2d. a mile. 



POSTAL AND TELEGRAPH FACILITIES. 



In sending letters, postal cards, etc., from point to 
point in the island of Jamaica, or abroad, the rates of 
postage charged are as follows : 

Local. 

Letters : for each half ounce, . One penny. 

Post cards: (inland only), . Halfpenny. 

Post cards : reply prepaid, . One penny. 

Newspapers, \ 

Current prices, ... I Halfpenny. 

Book packets (for each two ounces), J 

Parcels (for each two ounces) . One penny. 

Registration fee, . . . Fourpence. 

Foreign Letters. 

Not exceeding half an ounce, twopence halfpenny. 
Not exceeding one ounce fivepence. 

For each additional ounce, twopence halfpenny. 

A book packet may not exceed 3 lbs. in weight. 
Packets containing value must be registered, failing 
which they are liable to a surcharge equal to double 
the registration fee. Parcels containing articles valued 
at above ,£50 will not be accepted for transmission by 



220 



The New Jamaica. 



post; otherwise parcels under n lbs. may be sent to 
the United Kingdom or the United States of America, 
and under 7 lbs. via Great Britain to all countries 
included in the postal union. 

Money orders are subject to the following charges: 





Commission on an Order. 


Where Payable. 


Not 

exceeding 

£2. 


Above £2 
and not ex- 
ceeding £5. 


Above p£5 
and not ex- 
ceeding £-]. 


Above £7 
and not ex- 
ceeding .£10. 


In the United Kingdom and for through 
Money Orders 


s. 


d. 
9 

9 

6 


s. 
1 

1 

2 


d. 
6 

6 


s. 
2 

2 
3 


d. 

3 

3 
6 


s. 
3 

3 

4 

2 


d. 


In the United States of America 






In Canada 


> 




In British Guiana and Barbadoes and Lee- 
ward Islands , 











On the last day for issuing Money Orders by each 
mail an extra commission of sixpence on each order 
will be charged. 

With all first-class foreign powers, with the depend- 
encies of Great Britain and with the United States 
Money Order exchange has been authorized. 

The telegraph system now in operation on the 
island was established in 1879. ^ embraces all 
principal towns and villages at a uniform charge of 
is. for the first twenty words and 3^. for every addi- 
tional five words. The telegraph is a branch of the 



Postal and Telegraph Facilities. 



221 



P. O. department. Jamaica, in common with Barba- 
does, Trinidad, the Leeward islands, the Windward 
islands and Demerara pays an annual subsidy to the 
West India and Panama Telegraph Company (cable) 
according to the terms of an agreement made in 1879, 
by which the cable company furnishes daily a sum- 
mary of the world's news and prices current for the 
general benefit of the public. The tariffs for messages 
to North America and Europe, via Havana are from 
4s. lod. to 6s. gd. per word ; the lowest rate being to 
Key West, Fla. Communication by this channel is 
open also to the other West India islands. 



PUBLIC WORKS. 



Under the head of public works are included main 
roads and bridges, buildings belonging to the govern- 
ment, lands, canals, gardens and light-houses. 

For the first, few countries in the Western Hemi- 
sphere can boast as good roads as Jamaica can. They 
were almost the first object of legislative care, as early 
as 1681. Nearly thirty years ago they were removed 
from parochial control and assumed by the govern- 
ment. The main roads are the coast road, now almost 
continuous, which begins at Kingston as the Wind- 
ward road, leaves the shore in a few places, especially 
in the east and southeast, but follows generally the 
outline of the island ; the new inland road from Kings- 
ton to Annotto Bay ; the Spanish Town and St. 
Ann's Bay road, with its branches to Port Maria, 
Ocho Rios and Falmouth ; the upper road in Man- 
chester and St. Elizabeth, and the short cut from 
Lucea to Savana la Mar. There is continual en- 
larging, widening and repairing of highways, repairing 
and building culverts, and retaining walls and bridges ; 
yet it is doubtful if the cost per annum for main- 
tenance, repairs and new work throughout the whole 
island will average over £$0 per mile. The best road 
that we found in Jamaica was that between Morant 



Public Works. 223 

and a point beyond Bath. The total absence of frost 
is a saving to the public works department. But 
occasionally a heavy storm, such as that which oc- 
curred in 1885, does incalculable damage in a few 
hours. 

The finest bridge on the island is that over the Dry 
River. It was built in 1874 at a cost of £16,901. 
This structure is of iron, and consists of three spans, 
the centre one being 150 feet in the clear. Its girders 
are 40 feet above the river bed, which is usually dry, 
though the water sometimes reaches a height of 35 feet 
in a flood. The Annotto Bay, Black River, Flint River, 
Ocho Rios, Falmouth, Montego Bay and old Harbor 
bridges are among the most important of these works. 
There are also new bridges in St. Mary, Portland and 
St. Thomas, some of them still in process of construc- 
tion. 

The work on these roads and bridges is done in the 
most thorough and business-like manner. 

Public buildings comprise churches, certain chapels, 
hospitals, and schools, and all courts and government 
offices, prisons, reformatories,, police stations, asylums, 
etc., besides the Kingston Library, the Printing Estab- 
lishment, and some few others. 

The Church of England receives governmental sup- 
port throughout the island. Every town of any im- 
portance has its court-house, jail or police station, 
and hospital. These buildings are substantially built, 
generally of stone or iron. The prisons are worth 
visiting. Their management is usually praiseworthy. 
Everything is orderly, clean and comfortable as a rule. 



224 The New Jamaica. 

Indeed the care bestowed upon prisoners, inmates and 
patients in the various classes of institutions men- 
tioned, the enforcement of sanitary regulations and 
the quality of food provided all give evidence of the 
most efficient departmental care. 

The most important canal work ever attempted in 
the country is that in St. Catherine, the Rio Cobre 
irrigation system, which we have spoken of in another 
chapter. This work was completed in 1876. The 
head works are situated four and a half miles above 
Spanish Town. They consist of a weir for raising the 
level of the river and sluices for admitting water into 
the canal. The crest of the weir is 30 feet above the 
bed of the river, and it has a clear overfall of 287 feet. 
The average flow is 45,000 cubic yards per hour. The 
canal required bridges, aqueducts, walls and culverts 
in its construction. An iron pipe (36 inch) syphon, 6 
chains long, carries the water beneath the Rio Cobre 
at one place. It has a total length of nearly forty 
miles. 

Of gardens Jamaica has a rich share. The Castle- 
ton garden we have seen on the road from Constant 
Spring and Stony Hill to Annotto Bay. That of 
Bath has been practically abandoned, Hope taking its 
place in a large measure. The difficulty with the 
Bath garden was its complete inundation at certain 
times. The cinchona plantations comprise 143 acres in 
cinchona, and about seven in tea and nurseries of tim- 
ber and shade trees, which are distributed for reforest- 
ing. These plantations are twenty miles or more from 
Kingston, on the slopes of the Blue Mountains in St. 



Public Works. 225 

Andrew's. The Hope nurseries are on the Gordon- 
town road, about five miles from Kingston. New 
varieties of fruit and shade trees, timber, cane, etc., 
are raised here. The annual mean temperature is 
77.8 Far., and the rainfall averages 50.19 inch per 
annum. 

The King's House gardens and grounds, the Palisa- 
does Plantations and the Kingston Parade Garden are 
respectively devoted to economic and fruit trees, and 
rare flowering plants, to cocoanuts, fibre plants, etc. ; 
;.nd to shade and ornamental growths. It is largely 
through these experimental grounds and cultivations, 
often kept up at great cost, that Jamaica has become 
the garden spot it is to-day. Since 1774 the work has 
been constantly increasing in value and importance. 
There are upwards of forty varieties of cane, many of 
which have been first tried in the gardens, and the 
same is true of very many others of the most valuable 
products. Probably two-thirds of the fruit, nuts, 
choice woods and economic or medicinal plants now 
grown in Jamaica were introduced from foreign 
countries. 

The light-houses are at Morant Point, Plumb Point 
and Folly Point. The first is the beacon that greets 
the s 1 ranger who approaches Jamaica by the usual 
course, and lights him on his way when he is depart- 
ing. The second is the light whose faithful ray shines 
like a star across the palisadoes and the harbor to 
Kingston. 



GOVERNMENT REVENUE AND THE CUS- 
TOM HOUSE. 



The revenue of the government is from the follow- 
ing sources : admeasurers' fees, warehousing, wharf- 
age, import and export duties, light-house dues, rum 
duties, licenses, pilot fees, stamps, property taxes, 
general internal taxes, which include market fees and 
petty taxes of various kinds. 

We have not space to enumerate the articles which 
are dutiable, nor those which are on the free list. 
Broadly it may be stated that food supplies, with few 
exceptions ; all live stock except asses ; wood and lum- 
ber ; clothing and furniture ; spirits, wines, etc., are sub- 
ject to import duty either specific or advalorum. But 
mills and machinery or parts of the same ; tools and 
implements used in the trades or in agriculture; most 
raw material for manufacture, etc. ; books and works 
of art, are upon the free list. Sugar, rum, coffee, log- 
wood and other valuable woods are subject to a small 
export tariff. 

The regulations governing the inspection of bag- 
gage at the custom-house are as follows : 

" On the arrival of each steamer alongside the wharf, 
passengers' luggage is removed by the company's ser- 
vants, to the baggage room or floor for examination, 



Government Revenue and the Custom House. 227 

free of charge. The customs are not responsible for 
lost luggage except it be removed to the Queen's 
warehouse. If passengers have any tobacco, gold or 
silver plate, wine, spirits of any kind, or any articles 
other than for their own personal use, it is necessary 
that they should declare the fact previously to the 
examination of their luggage. If this be neglected 
and any of the above mentioned articles are found, 
visitors may be subjected to the inconvenience of a 
thorough examination and the possible detention of 
all their baggage. The importation of merchandise 
with baggage is strictly prohibited." 



EXCHANGE, COINS, ETC. 



THE Bank of Nova Scotia will buy and sell ex- 
change on United States and Canada at rates gov- 
erned by New York rates for sterling exchange. 

The following is a list of the gold and silver coins 
in use and recognized in Jamaica : 



Gold. 

% 

Doubloons — £ s. d. 

Old Mexican average ..340 

Columbian 3 o O 

Aliquot parts in pro- 
tion. 

Sovereigns — 

English and Australians I O O 
Half-Sovereign ditto.. O IO O 

American — 

Double Eagle 4 2 o 

Single ditto 2 I O 

Half ditto. . 1 o 6 

Quarter ditto o IO 3 

Dollar o 4 1 



Silver. 



English — £ s. 

Crown o 5 

Dollar o 4 

Half crown o 2 

Florin o 2 

Shilling o 1 

Sixpence o o 

Fourpence o o 

Threepence O o 

Twopence 

Penny-halfpenny o o 

Nickel Coins — 

Penny o o 

Half-penny o o 

Farthing o o 



Accounts are kept in £ s. d. 

Weights and measures are the same as those used 
in Great Britain. 



Exchange, Coins, Etc. 229 

American money passes everywhere in business 
The paper currency of the island consists of the notes 
of the Colonial bank. There is a nickel currency of 
pence and halfpence. 



CONCLUSION. 



THERE have been many things necessarily omitted 
from this little work. Matters that we had planned 
to discuss, data which it is difficult not to think quite 
as important as much that we have published. Our 
omissions have been unavoidable ; indeed, to have 
fully exhausted our note books and sources of infor- 
mation would require not one such volume as this, but 
twenty. 

We abandon our purpose of furnishing a chapter on 
folk lore with a sigh, and regret the shelving of much 
entertaining material on the still potent superstition of 
obiaism. Only briefly and unsatisfactorily have we 
touched the subject of education ; its advance and 
power in Jamaica demand more space then we could 
give it. But if we begin the catalogue of our delin- 
quencies, where will they end ? We must leave them 
to our critics, hoping that they will find in this book, 
even in its incompleteness, the evidence of honest pur- 
pose and a measure of fulfilment. 



NDEX 



Abolition, its effect on labor sup- 
ply, 18. 

Aborigines slain, 2. 

Accounts, 228. 

Accompong town, 121. 

Adderly, Sir A. J., 190. 

Age of gold at commencement of 
present century, 15. 

Agriculture depressed, 21. 

Agua Alta, 170. 

Air Pines, 115. 

Albemarle, Duke of, appointed, 10. 

Albemarle, political differences, 10. 

Albion estate, 120, 133. 

American Hotel, Constant Spring, 
125. 

American Money, 229. 

American population in Portland, 
149. 

Amity Cave, 201. 

Anchor line steamers, 216 ; stopping 
place at Kingston, 216; shipping 
ports, 217. 

Port Royal, ancient landmarks ob- 
literated in, 69. 

Angels, the first terminus of rail- 
way, 82. 

Annotto Bay, 84, 167 ; its chances, 
174 ; coolies at, 167 ; market at, 



169 ; its size and importance, 

170. 
Ants, their numbers, no. 
Ants and ant citadels, 109, no. 
Ants introduced, no. 
Architecture of dwellings, 93. 
Asiatic cholera, 21. 
Atlas Company, 136, 157, 212; 

steamships, 213, 214; peculiar 

advantages, 214. 



B. 



Back Water, Golden Vale, 156. 
Bacon, John, his statue of Rodney, 

Baker, Capt. L D., 149, 152. 

Bananas, how shipped, 139, in- 
creased shipments, 45 ; lands and 
prices, 181 ; quantity shipped 
from Jamaica, 42 ; their destina- 
tion, 42; walk, 114; flower, 114; 
plants, their manner of growth, 

T 53- 
Banks, 62. 

Bank of Nova Scotia, 22S. 
Banyan tree at Roaring River, 178. 
Bays and harbors, x. 
Bamboo fibre, 42. 
Bartholomew, first buccaneer, 7. 
Battery of the Apostles, 92. 



232 



Index. 



Bath, 131, 141, 143; tropical char- 
acter of country, 140; road to 
Manchioneal, 145. 

Beeston, Sir William, 12. 

Beggars, 65. 

Benbow, Admiral, died in Kingston, 
12. 

Bellevue, 120. 

Black lands, 210. 

Black River, 81, 121 ; bamboo 
works, 42 ; approach to, 202 ; 
lodgings at, 202 ; Waterloo Ho- 
tel, 203 ; road leaving, 203. 

Blake, Sir Henry Arthur, xi., 97. 

Blake, Sir Henry A. and Lady, 
residence at Craigton, 99. 

Blackwoods, quoting article, 132. 

Blue fields, 201. 

Blue Hole, 176. 

Blue Mountain Peaks, 34, 36 ; seen 
from Castleton road, 101. 

Blue Water, 147. 

Boards, municipal and road, x. 

Bog Walk, 84. 

Bolas, Juan de, 6. 

Booty taken to Port Royal, 67. 

Bourbon cane, introduction of, 17. 

Bowden, 136,137, 139. 

Boston Fruit Company, 136, 152, 
1 57, 21 5 ; steamers, 1 59 ; its young 
men, 162 ; properties of the, 158; 
Espent, Hon. W. Bancroft leased 
estates to, 1 58 ; shipping places, 
158. 

Buccaneers, 7 ; used caves for ren- 
dezvous, 123. 

Buff Bay, 167, 210. 

Bull Head, 210. 

Burke, Hon. Samuel C, 32. 



Bus hire and car fare, 65. 

Brafiliano, took valuable prizes, 7. 

Brayne, Colonel, appointed by 
Cromwell, 5. 

Brayne died, 5. 

Bridges, 122, 223. 

Bridge over Dry River, 223. 

Bridges on Castleton road, 105. 

Brooks' Hotel, Mandeville, 207. 

Brownstown, the commercial clear- 
ing house for district, 188 ; public 
buildings, 188 ; road, character of 
foliage, etc., 184; and Falmouth 
road, 188; its appearance, 187; 
and vicinity, the water supply, 36. 

Brown, Mrs., lodgings, 148. 

C. 

Cable rates, 221. 

Campbell, R. B., 85. 

Campeche, sacked by Scott, 7. 

Canada, her appreciation of com- 
mercial conditions, 45 ; her sugar 
imports, 43; increased exports 
to Jamaica, 44. 

Capital, chance for investment, 
79 ; invested in railway, 82. 

Carlisle, Earl of, summoned a new 
assembly, 10. 

Castleton, 224; gardens and the 
Wag Water, 94 ; interest of the 
Wag, description of the garden, 
distance from Kingston, 105, 101. 

Cathedral at Spanish Town, 88. 

Catherine peak, 120. 

Catholic Church in old Port Royal, 
68. 

Cane, acreage in, 132; falling off 
during last decade, 132. 



Index. 



233 



Cave river-s, 121. 
Caverns of St. Ann's, 183. 
Caves, 123; at Port Henderson, 91. 
Constant Spring Hotel, 35. # 
Channing, anti-slavery resolutions, 

17- 

Chapelton, 210. 

Charles II, accession to the throne 5. 

Chelsea pier, 127. 

Church, disestablished, xi., 28 ; of 
England, 66, 223. 

Cinchona, first planted on Blue 
Mountain, 27, 30, 224. 

Civil establishment, x. 

Clarendon, 210. 

Climate, 35, T26, 127. 

Clyde Line, 215. 

Cocoanut, growing and picking, 162. 

Coast line, 118. 

Cockpit country, 81, 210. 

Coins, 228. 

Coke, Hon. Wm. Harriott, 32. 

Columbus, discovered by, 1 ; duke- 
dom, 86. 

Columbus, Duke of St. Jago, 2. 

Columbus, his description of Ja- 
maica Mountains, 98. 

Columbus, subsequent landing, 1. 

Colonial Bank, 62 ; currency, 229. 

Coffee planting, 144. 

Colonial militia defeated the French, 
12. 

Commercial circles : tone of thought 
American, 42. 

Commission of inquiry, 23 ; its re- 
port, 24. 

Committees to represent the Ja- 
maica exhibition in foreign 
countries, 49. 



Comparative size of Jamaica, 119. 

Constant Spring, 94 ; hotel, 209 ; 
its charges and accommodations, 
100; on the road to Castleton, 
101 ; stream, 116. 

Constitutional change, 32. 

Constitution, new, ordered in 1884 
by Her Majesty, ^- 

Consumption of manufactures in 
Jamaica, 46. 

Convicts, 127. 

Coolies, introduction of, 21 ; immi- 
gration revived, 27 ; how they 
compare with the negroes, 99 ; 
settlement near Gordon Town, 
99; women, 58,75. 

Corinaldi, Mr., U. S. Consular 
agent at Montego Bay, 193. 

Council, writs issued for, 6. 

Counties, number and names, ix. 

Courts, x. 

Coward's and Queensbury ridges, 
120. 

Creole, 74; fear of black men, 20. 

Cromwell, 2, 5, 67. 

Cross, the, near Ann otto Bay, 170. 

Craigton, summer residence of Gov- 
ernor and Lady Blake, 99. 

Cultivation of mountain slopes, 112. 

Cumberland Pen, 75. 

Cuna Cuna pass, 143; pass, from 
the north side, 161. 

Custom House regulations, 226. 

Custos of St. Thomas, killed in 
Morant Bay Court House, 135. 

D. 

Davis, Rev. Mr., 198. 
Davis, Richard, 125. 



234 



f?idex. 



Davis, John, expeditions to Nica- 
ragua, 7. 

Death rate, 40. 

Derby, Lord, dispatch from, 32. 

Destruction of roads, 29. 

Dialect, 109, 114. 

Deficit in treasury, 1865, 27. 

Discovery of Jamaica, 1. 

Dissenting ministers, charged with 
incendiary conduct, 21. 

District of Vere, 210. 

Doctor, the, the sea breeze, 34, 55. 

Dolphin Head, 199. 

Don Sasi, 175. 

D'Oyley, 4, 86; third term, 5 ; re- 
lieved by Sedjvvick, 5 ; succeeded 
in subduing slaves, 5. 

Dress of peasant women, 94. 

Dry Harbor, 1, 183; landing place 
of Columbus, 175; mountains of 
St. Ann, 36. 

Duffy, Mrs., 141, 143. 

Du Grasse, 86. 

Duty, import on corn food, 20. 

E. 

Earthquakes, the, 11. 

Easington, 131. 

Eastern Portland : its abandoned 

estates, 147. 
Education, system of : established, 

29. 
Effingham, arms, 93. 
Elgin, Countess of, 93. 
Electric light, 62. 
Elections under new constitution, 

33- 

Elletson succeeded Lyttleton, 14, 



Emancipation, 17 ; condition of 
planters, 18. 

Esquimel, Don Pedro de, 191. 

Esquivel, Don Juan, 179. 

Estates mortgaged and abandoned, 
18. 

Estes, Wm. R., U. S. Consul, con- 
ducted services on decoration day, 
98. 

Evaporation of rivers, 122. 

Ewarton, 8, 171. 

Exports, total in 1888-89, 43. 

Exports increased in 1890, 45. 

Extravagance in Port Royal, 9. 

Eyre's acts, 23, 32. 

Eyre, Edward John, governor, 22, 
143 ; refusal of government to 
reinstate him, 25; his influence 
on legislation relating to surren- 
der of liberties, 25 ; informed of 
the outrage, 23. 

Exhibition, architecture of build- 
ing, 48, 62, 93; exhibits, ar- 
rangement of groups, etc., 50; 
artificial lake, 51 ; Austria's ap- 
plication for exhibition space, 50; 
Austrian exhibit, 52 ; available 
space in main exhibition building, 
51 ; English P. O. exhibit, 52 ; 
Electric Railway, etc., 51 ; local 
fairs, 52, 53; outdoor space, 51 ; 
pavilion for special exhibits, 51 ; 
peasantry, misunders t a n d i n g 
about the purpose of the exhibi- 
tion, 50 ; Quebec Lodge chosen 
as site for exhibition, 48 ; West 
India Islands at the exhibition, 
52 ; Annex decided on in Sep- 
tember, 51. 



Index. 



235 



Fairy Hill, 146. 

Falmouth, 190; business, 192; its 
population, 191 ; public build- 
ings, 192; water supply, 192. 

Fawcett, Mr. William, presented 
proposition for holding exhibi- 
tion, 47. 

Fertilizers : their first use in St. 
Ann's Bay, 181. 

Fever line, the, 39. 

First impressions, 56. 

Fish River, 199. 

Floods, 29. 

Florence, sch., detention of, 31. 

Flint River, 171. 

Foliage and garden plants, 94. 

Folly Point, lighthouse, 148. 

Food supply, 46. 

Foreign population : their comfort 
in living, 55. 

Fort Charlotte, 197. 

Frenchmen, their increase, 19. 

Free trade, 18 ; its diminished 
chances for profiting sugar-grow- 
ing, 18. 

Froude, Anthony, 207. 

Fruitgrowing, 117. 

Fruit growing and other blessings, 

135- 
Fruit, prices, etc., 46. 

G. 

Galdy, Lewis, 92. 

Gamble, Governor : promises made 

by crown, 32. 
General Assembly, first held, 6. 
Geology, a problem, 118. 



Geology (Sawkin's), 119. 

Golden Vale, first view, 152; Coolie 
laborers at, 155; wages at, 155; 
copper mine, 157; its cultivation, 
154; school at, 154; its output of 
fruit, 152 

Gordon, George William, his 
birth, 22 ; an agitator, 22 ; refer- 
ence to his execution, 26; tried 
by court-martial, and hanged, 23. 

Gordon Town, distance from King- 
ston, 99. 

Gosse, the naturalist, 201. 

Governor Eyre, surrender of con- 
stitutional rights, 61. 

Government offices, 233. 

Government (present), x. 

Government, the, tendered to the 
crown, 26. 

Grant, Sir J. P., appointed governor, 
27 ; confiscated goods landed in 
Jamaica, 28 ; superseded by Sir 
William Gray, 29. 

Gray, Sir William, superseded Sir 
J. P. Grant, 29. 

Great Britain : her supplies to Ja- 
maica, 46. 

Green Bay, 92. 

Green Island, T99. 

Guarantee fund for the .exhibition, 
49. 

Guarantors of the fund for the ex- 
hibition : Messrs. Ward, Verley 
and Stiebel, 49. 

Guerney, Mr. Russell, 24. 

H. 

Half-way Tree : the church. 9S ; 
the cross road, 99; the return. 



236 



Index. 



209 ; road, 64, 94, 48 ; the village, 

97- 
Hall, Mr. Maxwell, F. R. A. S., 

account of rainfall, 38 ; intimate 

knowledge of meteorological 

conditions, 38. 
Harrison, Col., buried at Half-way 

Tree. Decoration day services 

over his grave, 98. 
Harvey, Hon. Thos. Lloyd, 32. 
Healthshire Hills, yy, 91. 
Heat in Jamaica, 34. 
Hector's River, 121. 
Heliconia Charitonia, no. 
Hermitage, 162. 
Hills, the, 107, in, 113. 
Hispaniola, 10. 
Hitchins, Captain, 135. 
Honduras and C. A. Co., 214. 
Hope Gardens High School for 

boys, etc., 100. 
Hope nurseries, 225. 
Hope River, 129. 
Hotels Law, 211. 
Hotel Rio Cobre, 93. 
Houses in Jamaica: how con- 
structed, 34. 
Hunter, Major-General Robert 

informed himself about Jamaica, 

13, salary increased, 13. 
Hurricane, 12. 

I. 

Ice, its manufacture, 62. 
Immigration debt, transfer, 29. 
Imports and exports, table of, 43. 
Inchequin, Earl of, took charge 

of affairs : retaliated upon 

French, 10. 



Innis' Bay, 146. 
Insurance Companies, 40. 
Island Head, 137. 
Ipswich, 81. 

Iron cage used for hanging con- 
demned victims, 60. 

J- 

Jackson ; attacked Jamaica, 2. 

Jackson : extorted ransom of 
Spanish Town, 3. 

Jamaica as a sanitarium, 41 ; 
called on to assist England 
against . South American ports, 

13- 
Jamaica Fruit Co., 150; industry, 

effect of emancipation upon it, 

17; railway, 64; Spa, 143; 

Tramway Co., streets on which 

the cars run, 64. 
James II., flight of, 10. 
John Crow, buzzard, 55. 
John Crow Hills, 146. 
John Crow Mountains, 123. 
Johnstone, Dr. James, 36. 
Johnstone, Dr. Jas., 187. 

K. 

Kempshot observatory, its loca- 
tion, altitude, etc., 38. 

Kerr, J. E., & Co., 180, 194, 215; 
headquarters at Montego Bay, 195. 

Kingston, 77 ; and Liguanea water 
works, 100; corporate name, xi. ; 
distance to Half-way Tree, 93; 
distance to Hope, 225; estab- 
lished, 12; wharves, 66; sail 
boats, 66 ; harbor, 6y ; water sup- 



Index. 



237 



ply, 61 ; parish church, 62 ; street 
cars, 29 ; fires, 61 ; fire, its ex- 
tent, 31 ; gas in, 62 ; government 
removed to, 28 ; harbor, distance 
from Quebec Lodge, 48; hos- 
pital, 62; its shops, clothing, 
books, food supplies, prices, 65 ; 
its hotels and lodging-houses, 66 ; 
its approaches, 64; its impor- 
tance, 61 ; its population, 61 ; its 
distance from Stony Hill, 103 ; its 
mean temperature, 39 ; its cli- 
mate, 34; its outskirts, 35; King 
street, 60. 

Kingston library, 223; meeting of 
gentlemen with Governor Blake 
to discuss exhibition, 47 ; on the 
Liguanea plain, 62; original 
form of, 60. 

Kingston's places of worship, 66; 
Queen street, 60; seen across 
bay from Port Royal, 71. 

King's house, 97. 

Knowles, Governor, burned in 
effigy, 14. 

Knockalva, 199. 

L. 

Labor question discussed by Mr. 
Solomon, 180; wages: compared 
with those of U. S. or England, 
6 S . 

Laborers length of working day, 45. 

Lacovia, 203. 

Lady Blake : influence of her taste 
at King's house, 97. 

La Have captured by Spanish man- 
of-war, 28. 

Lakes, 123. 



Land slides, in, 119. 

Latitude of Jamaica, ix. 

Lawes, Sir Nicholas, buried at 
Half-way Tree church, 12, 98. 

Lawrence, Mrs., at Malvern, 204. 

Legislative council, x. 

Length of Jamaica, ix. 

Lethe estate, 81. 

Levy, Mr., at Brownstown, 188. 

Letters of marque granted to pi- 
rates by Mocldingford, 7. 

License,required of retail dealers,2o. 

Light houses, 225. 

Life Assurance Companies, 62. 

Liguanea Plain, the, 101. 

Luidas Vale, 211. 

Liguanea water works, 101. 

Lilly, Colonel Christian, laid out 
Kingston, 12. 

Livingstone, 98. 

Long Bay, 200. 

Long Mountain, 127, 129. 

Logwood, 78. 

Lowayton, extinct volcano, 164. 

Lost Rivers, 113. 

Lover's leap, 205. 

Lucea, leaving the town, 198. 

Lucea, how situated, harbor ap- 
proaches, etc., 197. 

Lunatic asylum, 127, 

Lyttleton, Governor, 6; brought 
news of war, 14; grants of land 
to maroons, 6; succeeded by El- 
letson, 14. 

M. 

Machinery, need of, 79. 
Malvern, distances from principal 
points, 204. 



2 3 8 



Index. 



Manchester, Duke of, mutiny 
among troops, 16. 

Manchester saw mill, 45 ; upper 
205 ; deathrate in, 206 ; sanitary 
conditions, 206. 

Manchioneal lodging, 145. 

Manchioneal, road from Bath, 145. 

Mandeville, 8, 203 ; the road to 
it from the west, 207. 

Mangoes, 116, 117. 

Mansvelt, 8; took St. Cather- 
ine's, 7. 

Manteca Bay, 195. 

Manufactories, 42, 45; staples of, 

45- 
Half-way Tree, market at, 98. 

Marine hospital, no other one for 
years than that at Port Royal, 70. 

Maroons, 5, 13, 137 ; aided white 
troops and volunteers, 23 ; out- 
break, 1795, 15; their privileges, 
161 ; war, 13; warfare, hiding in 
caverns, 123. 

Marriage law revised, 30. 

Martha Brae River, 190. 

Martial law, 14. 

Martial law proclaimed in 1865, 23. 

Martyr, Peter, 183. 

Maule, Mr. J. B., 24. 

May Pen, 80, 209. 

Machete, the use of, 22. 

Mechanic's wages, 46. 

Medicinal trees and herbs, 105. 

Melilla, 2, 86, 190. 

Morant River, .137, 

Metcalfe, Sir Charles, succeeded in 
restoring peace, 18. 

Metropolis of West Indies, 68. 



Middlesex, 81. 

Milk River Bath, 142,210. 

Mizpah, 205. 

Moddiford made governor, 6, 9. 

Mona Vale, cane fields, 101. 

Moneague, 178. 

Money orders, 220. 

Montego Bay, 81, 193; its com- 
merce, 195; population, 194; the 
road from, 199. 

Montego River, 122. 

Moodie, Gov., representative of Ja- 
maica Fruit Co., 150, 160. 

Moore Town, 144, 161. 

Moraine on Bath road, 141. 

Morant Bay, 131; accommodations, 
134; tragedy, 134; court-house, 
fight at, 23. 

Morgan and Bartholomew, 67. 

Morgan, Henry, 7 ; lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, 9 ; succeeds Mansvelt, 8 ; 
knighted, 9: foe of pirates, 9. 

Morgan, Sir Edward, dismissed 
assembly, 6. 

Mountains of Jamaica, their curi- 
ous appearance, 99. 

Mount Diabolo, 210. 

Mouth River, 190. 

Museum and library, 59. 

Mural tablets in Port Royal church, 
69. 

Musgrave, Earl of, governor, 16, 
82, 29; his retirement, 31 ; party 
to disagreement, 31 ; suggested 
creation of office of collector gen 
eral, 31. 

Mutiny among troooSj 16. 

Myrtle Bank, 66. 



Index. 



239 



N. 

Nanny Town, 137. 

Nassau Mountains, 204. 

Navy Island, Port Antonio, 148. 

Negril's River, to/). 

Negro outbreak in Havana, 14. 

Nelson, 14. 

New Castle, 91-99. 

Nicaragua exhibition, 15. 

Nicaragua taken by John Davis, 7. 

Noel, Mrs,, 133. 

Norman Market, 187. 

Norman, Sir Henry W., governor 

in 1884 ; crown promises carried 

into effect, 32. 
Nurseries at Castleton, 105. 

O. 

Ocho Rios, 175. 
Old Harbor, 209. 
Old Joe, 56. 
One Eye River, 121. 
Opening for young men in Ja- 
maica,. 163, 164. 
Ora Cabessa River, 1, 173, 174. 
Oranges, 78. 
Orchids and orchidaceous plants, 

ii5- 

Order in Council, by Her Majesty, 

relating to new constitution, y^. 
Oristan, 2, 86, 201. 
Oxford, I2i. 



Panama attacked by Morgan, 8. 
Paradise Town, 126. 
Park Lodsre, 66. 



Passage Fort taken by Col. Jackson, 
2,92. 

Payne, Mr. 193. 

Peasant women, 94. 

Peasant proprietors, 152. 

Pedro plains, 204; Bluff, 204. 

Penn, Admiral, invasion of Jamaica 
by, 3> 4, 91- 

Penn and Venables, their squad- 
ron anchored in Kingston harbor, 
67. 

Phillippo, Dr. James Cecil, 40, 32. 

Pineapples, 116, 115. 

Picaroons, 12. 

Pirates, 7. 

Plantain Garden River, 122, 144. 

Plants, economic, 105. 

Plants, poisonous, 108. 

Plant system, 215. 

Planters, indebtedness, 18. 

Poll tax on cattle reimposed, 29. 

Population, eighteenth century, 15. 

Port Antonio, 82, 84, 146, 150. 

Port Henderson, 91. 

Portland, 146. 

Port Maria, 1, 170, 171, 172, 173. 

Port Morant, 131, 136, 137, 140. 

Porto Bello, 14. 

Port Patrick, 5. 

Port Royal, 12, 92 ; harbor defences, 
71 ; military works, 71 ; swal- 
lowed by earthquakes, ii; wealth 
brought by freebooters, 8 ; 
wharves destroyed, 11. 

Porus, 80, 81. 

Postal rates, 219. 

Ponds, 123. > 

Priestman's River, 146. 



240 



Index, 



Products of Spanish River country, 

165. 
Public buildings, 223. 
Public meetings in Kingston and 

elsewhere, 32. 
Public works, 222. 
Puerto Bueno, 1. 
Puerto Sancta Maria, 172. 



Queen's warehouses, 227. 
R. 

Railway, 73, 217 ; where its course 
lies, 73 ; its purpose, 74 ; station, 
Kingston, 74; similar to Eng- 
lish roads, 74 : extension to 
Porus, 84 ; company, when incor- 
porated, 82 ; government pur- 
chase of, 84 ; its transfer, 84 ; a 
means of making produce mar- 
ketable, 7S. 

Rainfall at Hope, 225. 

Rains, more or less violent, ac- 
cording to locality, 37; to be 
expected in January, 37 ; their 
limited area, 38. 

Ramshorn Ridge, the, 101. 

Rates of carriage and horse hire, 
217. 

Rates of exchange, 228. 

Reformatory at Stony Hill, 104. 

Register of vessels in 1889, 43. 

Revenue, sources, etc., 226. 

Removal of seat of government 
from Spanish Town, 62. 

Rio Cobre canal, 29, 77, 78, 93, 
224. 

Rio Bueno Bay, 189. 



Rio Bueno, the, 188. 

Rio d'Oro, 81, 171. 

Rio Grande, 144, 151; advantages 
of its neighborhood, 152; from 
ridge at Golden Vale, 156. 

Rio Nuevo, 174. 

Rio Nuevo Bay, 174. 

Rivers, their sudden rising, 151. 

Roads between Ann otto Bay, Kings- 
ton, and other points, 171. 

Roads, cost of working, 140 ; their 
excellence, 222. 

Roaring cave, 201. 

Roaring River, 175; falls, 176, 177. 

Robb, Rev. Alex., D. D. on the ad- 
vantages of ihe climate, 41. 

Rock fort, 127, 128. 

Rock fort, 129. 

Rodney, Admiral, won victory over 
DuCasse, 15. 

Rodney ; Admiral, 86; his lookout, 
92; statue by John Bacon, 15, 
87 ; removed and restored, 87. 

Roman Catholic Church, 58, 59. 

Royal African Company, their 
charter, 9. 

Royal Mail Co., 215. 

Roy ? Miss, 207. 

Rum, shipments to England, 45. 

Runaway Bay, 175. 



Salt Pond, 133. 

Santiago d^ la Vega, 6. 

Santa Cruz Mountains, 203 ; 
Square, 203. 

Savana la Mar built on a plain, 14, 
199, 200; its importance as a 
seaport, 200; its beauty, 201. 



Index. 



241 



Savilia, 2. 

Solomon, Hon. Michael, 180. 

Scott, Lewis, buccaneer, landed 
force on Spanish territory, 7. 

Scholarship founded, 30. 

Schools, 223. 

Secret gold mine of the Spaniards, 
191. 

Sedjwick, 5. 

Seven mile hill, 205. 

Seville, 86. 

Sevilla d'Oro, 179. 

Shirley, 3. 

Shooter's Hill, 81. 

Silver Spring, 99. 

Sink hole in John Crow Mountains, 
123. 

Sink River, the, 188. 

Sir Anthony Shirley, attacked 
island, 2. 

Slaves, importation of, 15; insur- 
rection in St. Mary, 145 mortality 
among, 16 ; overworked, 19 ; 
treatment of, 16; ships, 16; 
uprising, 1832, 20; trade at- 
tained highest pitch, 16; trade 
interfered with by Royal African 
Company, 10. 

Sligo, Lord, 18. 

Sloane, Sir Hans, yj > naturalist, 
came with Albemarle, 10. 

Small-pox, 29. 

Solomon, Hon. Michael, 32. 

Spaniards, cruelty, 2. 

Spaniards driven from Ireland, 4. 

Spanish governor, last fled to 
Cuba, 3. 

Spanish River, 165. 

Spanish Town, 2, 15, 77,80, 86; 



ransom extorted by Jackson, 3 ; 
repaired, 2; roads, 93, 64; first 
assembly held, 6 ; seat of govern- 
ment removed from, 28 ,- watched 
by Rodney, 87 ; return to, 209. 

Spanish Governor, 91. 

Square miles, 11 95 

Stamp duty on transfer of small 
parcels of land, 20. 

St. Andrew, 120. 

St. Andrews, elevation, 35. 

St. Ann's Bay, 174; the town, 179; 
road, 178 ; communication with 
theU. S., 179; market, 182; Ja- 
maica's garden, 174. 

St. Catherine, 77, 81. 

Steamers and sailing vessels arriv- 
ing in 1888-89, 43. , 

St. Elizabeth, 202, 203. 

Stewart Town, 188. 

Stiebel, Mr. Geo., 32. 

St. Ja: >es' Parish, 195. 

St. Jago de la Vega, 2 ; burned, 2 ; 
treas* "- removed, 3 ; attacked by 
Penn, 3. 

Storks, Sir Henry, knight, 24; re- 
port of the commission, 26. 

Stony Hill, 94, 103 ; its picturesque- 
ness, 101. 

Streams, their frequency, 120. 

St. Thomas, 131. 

St. Thomas in the Vale, 31, 175. 

St. Thomas in the East, its custos 
and vestry killed, 23, 120, 134. 

St. Davids, 131. 

Subterranean streams and lakes, 
183. 

Sugar, duty on, 18 ; cane fields at 
Mona seen from Stony Hill, 101 ; 



242 



Index. 



first shipment, 9 ; production of, 
18; ruin at Constant Spring 109; 
shipments, 42 ; staple of manufac- 
tures, 45. 

Surinamese Dutchmen immigrated 
to the island, 9. 

Surrey County, 146. 

Swift River, 162. 

T. 

Tax on sugar and coffee, 20. 

Taxes to which negroes were sub- 
jected, 21. 

Telegraph system, 220. 

Temperature, average in the island, 
36; varies with the altitude, 36; 
of Jamaica, 38. 

Temperance, the necessity for, 39. 

Three-fingered Jack, 136. 

Tidal wave at Savana la Mar, 200. 

Timber lands, 120. 

Titchfield, old name for Port An- 
tonio, 148. 

Titchfield trust, 149. 

Tom Cringle's tree, 209. 

Topography, 34, 118, 119. 

Tragedy of October, 1865, r 34- 

Tram cars, 62, 218 ; from Kingston 
to Half-way Tree, 98. 

Transportation, 212. 

Trelawney, 82, 137 ; earthquake of 
1744, 14 ; Governor, made peace 
with Maroons, 13. 

U. 

United Kingdom, banana im- 
ports, 42. 

United States, banana imports, 42 ; 
increased exports to Jamaica, 44 ; 



planters' threat to unite with, 16 • 
the, their trade with Jamaica, 46. 

United States of Columbia as a 
trade correspondent, 44. 

Up-park camp, 93. 

V. 

Vaughn, Governor, recalled bucca- 
neers' commissions, 9. 

Vauxhall, 81. 

Vegetation, tropical plants in the 
hills, 107. 

Venables, Colonel, 91 ; with Ad- 
miral Penn, 3. 

Vickers, Hon. Wm., 32. 

Victoria Institute, 30. 

Victoria market, 62. 

Volunteer corps, 135. 

Volcano, extinct, 123. - 

Valleys, narrow, cultivated, III. 

Vosper, Mrs., 198. 

W. 

Wage question, 144. 
Wagonette Company, 208, 217. 
Water-works, Kingston and Li- 

guanea, 100. 
Watson, Mrs., Inn, 180; Taylor, 

Hon. Arthur, 32. 
Wag Water, 104, 170. 
Wealth brought by buccaneers, 1 5. 
Weights and measures, 228. 
Wilberforce, 17. 
Windsor, encouraged pirating, 6 ; 

followed by Lyttleton, 6; Lord, 

appointed by Charles II., 5. 
Windward Road, 126. 
Wentworth, 162. 



Index. 



243 



Wessels, E. J., 181 , on bananas, 
180, 181 j line, 157 ; steamships, 
214. 

Wesson, Mr. Fied'k, 84. 

Westmoreland, 199, 200 ; its prod- 
ucts, 201. 

White River, 175. 

William and Mary, 10. 

W. I. and Panama Telegraph Co. 

" 231. 



Woodland, method of clearing, 78. 
Working committees of the exhi- 
bition 48. 

Y. 

Yallahs, 131 ; Bay. 131 ; River. 

I3 1 * *33- 
Yellow Jack, 70. 
York Castle, 178. 
Y. S. River, 203. 



